NBI probes killing of Sagay sugarcane farmers

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has stepped into the investigation of last weekend's killing of nine sugarcane farmers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.

"I have instructed the NBI to come in," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Tuesday.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is also investigating the killings, a case which the Human Rights Watch believes highlights "serious rights abuses" under an administration known globally for its deadly crackdown on illegal drugs.

Earlier, KABAYAN party-list Representative Ron Salo said the NBI should lead the investigation on the incident.

"The NBI should be the law enforcement agency tasked to investigate the killing of the Negros farmers," Salo said in a statement.

"I am therefore asking Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to direct the NBI to take over the investigation in order to give justice to the victims' families."

Malacañang and the PNP have already pointed to the communist New People's Army (NPA) as the alleged perpetrators of the incident. The Department of Agrarian Reform, on the other hand, tagged "private goons" who are purportedly former members of a so-called Revolutionary Proletarian Army.

Initial police investigation reportedly shows that the victims occupied the agricultural farm in Hacienda Nene on Saturday morning, a day after the farm owner harvested sugar cane.

The nine farmers, which included four women and two minors, were reportedly resting when "more or less 40 unidentified armed men" fired upon them at around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, October 20. Some of them were reportedly burned.

Survivors deny that their group, the Negros Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), is a front of the NPA. 

The secretary general of the sugar workers' group believes the land owner's personnel were behind the murders. The military may have also been involved, he said.

Bayan Muna chairman and former representative Neri Colmenares held the Duterte administration and the military responsible for the incident, prompting Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to accuse him of desperation to discredit the presidency.

Salo urged the Department of Justice to apply the full force of the law in order for justice to be served.

"It is not an ordinary crime, and could not have been committed by just one person. The victims’ families have no one to cling on to except the government to bring the perpetrators to justice," he said.

"Government should offer protection and reward to all who give good leads," he added. —with Erwin Colcol/KBK, GMA News