• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The New People’s Army (NPA) has admitted killing a sugarcane plantation overseer, whom they accused as a military informant, in Barangay Bi-ao, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental on June 8.
In a statement, the NPA Romeo Nanta Command said it has successfully carried out the imposition of death penalty against Marlon Galan, in connection with the death of Reynaldo Erecre, secretary of Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros, and two other rebels on Jan. 30 in the same village.
Police investigation showed that the victim, who was supervising laborers in a sugarcane field, was shot by two unidentified gunmen.
He succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds and was declared dead at the Binalbagan health facility.
The NPA also claimed responsibility for the death of former barangay tanod Momarlito Alingasa in Barangay Minautok, Calatrava on June 5.
In a statement, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) strongly condemned the brazen and arrogant admission by the NPA that it carried out the killing of two civilians it accused of being a government intelligence assets in Calatrava and Binalbagan.
“The two incidents once again highlights the deadly practice of spy-tagging — the branding of individuals as government informants, intelligence assets, or military collaborators and subsequently targeting them for execution,” NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. said.
Based on documented monitoring of NPA-initiated murders of civilians from 2021 to May 2026, 51 of 59 recorded spy-tagging killings nationwide occurred in the Negros Island Region, including 41 in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental.
Torres challenged the Commission on Human Rights to once again take a firm and unequivocal stand on this matter.
“If allegations of human rights violations deserve investigation when committed by state actors, then consistency demands equal scrutiny when an armed communist group publicly admits to carrying out an execution,” he added. | GB
