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BACOLOD, Philippines – The New People’s Army Leonardo Panaligan Command of the Central Negros Guerrilla Front has claimed the alleged rebel killed in an encounter in Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental on Monday morning, November 21, was a farmer who was executed by government troops in front of his wife and family.
The 62nd Infantry Brigade in a Facebook post said 34-year-old Victoriano V Baldonado alias Rudy, of Sitio Amumuyong, Brgy Trinidad, Guihulngan City, was killed during an encounter between government troops and rebels in Sitio Banderahan around 6 am of November 21.
The military described Baldonado as the commanding officer of Section Guerrilla Unit (SGU), Central Negros Front 1 (CN1), Komiteng Rehiyon Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor (KR-NCBS).
The unit, it added, operates in the tri-boundaries of Guihulngan City, Canlaon City, both of Negros Oriental and Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental.
The encounter also led to the seizure of one M16 rifle with three magazines and ammunition and other belongings believed to belong to the guerrillas, the 62IB said.
The military said some locals tipped off troops to the presence of rebels in Sitio Banderahan, where troops came under fire as they approached the area.
The military said it turned over Baldonado’s remains to his family at Saint Francis Funeral Homes in Brgy Poblacion, Guihulngan City on November 22.
But in a statement sent to Rappler, Ka JB Regalado Tagpamaba of the Leonardo Panaligan Command said Baldonado, a farmer, “was summarily executed by 62nd IB soldiers in front of his wife and children at their home in Sitio Columbia, Brgy Trinidad, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, November 21, 6 am.”
“Baldonado is not an NPA and was not in any encounter involving the NPA,” said Tagpamaba in the local Hiligaynon language.
The NPA said Baldonado has been consistently red-tagged since 2017.
“He is a civilian and has long farmed in the area, and it is a lie to call him an NPA,” the rebel spokesman said.
The NPA usually acknowledges its casualties.
The rebel spokesman, meanwhile, claimed rebels killed two 62IB troops in three successive NPA offensives on November 21, also in Barangay Trinidad.
He added that rebels also killed a suspected intelligence asset of the military in Moises Padilla town, Negros Occidental province on November 20.
The rebel statement said the two soldiers were killed in an afternoon ambush on November 21 in Sityo Tuko, Barangay Trinidad.
The military, which also usually acknowledges losses, has not shared any report of an afternoon encounter. – Rappler.com
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