BACOLOD City – The ApolinarioGatmaitan Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) admitted to killing a retired soldier and policeman who it claimed were top assistants of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental mayor MagdalenoPeña.
NPA spokesman Ka JB Regalado said their BagongHukbong Bayanarmed members shot the 50-year-old retired soldier JoseJoeritoAmableand 70-year-old retired police officer AlaejandroBorres on April 9 in Barangay Bulad, Isabela, Negros Occidental.
But Regalado denied that they were behind the death of Barangay Peace Action Team member Federico Bitgue, 29.
The shooting happened in a wake that Bitgue attended. The 10-year-old Timothy ArronArchivar and 34-year-old teacher AlquinGenterola Jr., who were also there, were wounded.
Isabela police earlier said Bitgue, Archivar and Genterola were hit by stray bullets.
According to Regalado, the NPA members were supposed to arrest Borres and Amableupon the order of the Revolutionary People’s Court.
Borres and Amable were allegedly responsible for “numerous crimes committed against the masses and the revolutionary movement in relation to their affiliation with Mayor Peña,” Regalado said.
He added that Borres and Amable are their “military targets” for being “think tanks” behind Peña’s “counter-revolutionary and anti-people campaign.”
Regalado also accused Peña of “terrorizing the ordinary townsfolk of Moises Padilla and its neighboring areas.”/PN
