Murder rap on Sagay massacre transferred to DOJ Manila

Prosecutors from the Department of Justice in Manila are now handling the multiple murder complaints in connection with the killing of nine sugarcane farmers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental in October last year.

The criminal complaints will undergo preliminary investigation in Manila after prosecutors from the region inhibited from handling them, Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said in a text message on Tuesday.

Two of the nine suspects, Rene Manlangit and Rogelio Arquillo, were identified in an earlier report as former recruiters for the National Federation of Sugar Workers, the organization that the murdered farmers were said to have been members of.

Western Visayas police reported that more or less 40 unidentified armed men shot at the victims, including two minors, when they were resting at Hacienda Nene at Purok Firetree, Barangay Bulanon in Sagay last Oct. 20.

The resolution that would come out of the preliminary investigation into the complaint will determine whether or not charges would be pressed against the suspects in court.

For a case to be brought to court, prosecutors would have to find probable cause that the alleged crime had been committed by the persons accused.

Charges filed in connection with the massacre include a complaint for kidnapping against a human rights lawyer assisting a boy witness to the crime, and one for abuse against the child's father, who allegedly hounded his ex-partner turn the minor over to the police to make him a star witness in the case. — RSJ, GMA News