Filtered By: Topstories
News

Suspects in Sagay City massacre of 9 farmers charged -police


Suspects in the massacre last week of nine sugar farmers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental have been charged in court, a police official said Sunday.

GMA News' Divine Reyes, in a report on Super Radyo dzBB, quoted Negros Occidental Regional Police Office head Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao as saying that multiple murder cases have been slapped against nine suspects.

Two of the suspects were identified in the report as Rene Manlangit and Rogelio Arquillo. 

Bulalacao said the two used to be recruiters for the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), adding that the police office has eight witnesses against the two, including a minor that survived the massacre.

This Sunday, the nine victims were to be buried separately in their respective localities. All of them were members of NFSW. 

An initial police investigation showed that the nine were recruited into the NFSW on a false promise that they will be given a share of Hacienda Nene's land if the group succeeds in occupying the land under the so-called Oplan Bungkalan Okupasyon.

Bulalacao added that the farmers were just duped and used by communist New People's Army for its land occupation plan, in connection with the land reform program. 

But the real motive by the NPA for recruiting the victims was to mobilize them to topple the government. 

Last Saturday, the NFSW blamed "powerful landlords" in Negros, in cahoots with the auxiliary military and the police forces, for the massacre last October 20.

In a statement, the NFSW  said that the lessee or "aryendador" —backed by landlords and auxiliary government troops —was responsible for the massacre.

It described the lessee as a "close relative of a powerful landlord," who maintains a "private armed group" composed of Special Civilian Auxiliary Army (SCAA) members.

"Local SCAA are known to protect haciendas in Negros and are under the control of the local government," the NFSW said. —LBG, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT