News and UpdatesIn the NewsNegOr ‘hit list’ stirs Senate

NegOr ‘hit list’ stirs Senate

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A supposed “hit list” containing names of northern Negros Oriental residents tagged as CPP/NPA supporters has gotten national attention after it was revealed Tuesday by Sen. Rissa Hontiveros in a nationally-televised Senate investigation into the Negros Oriental killings.

Hontiveros, who initiated the public hearing at the Senate Committee on Peace and Order chaired by Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, said that five of the 15 names on the list have since been killed, and called for the protection of the remaining 10 persons on the list.

The list was signed by an erstwhile unknown group called the Kawsa Guihulnganon batok Komunista (KaGubaK).

The latest victim whose name was on the list was lawyer Anthony Trinidad.

Many of Trinidad’s relatives are also in the list, and have asked for police protection.

The other persons who have been killed after the list surfaced were Roberto Caday, an Aglipayan priest, who was said to be active in militant movements in the 1980s.

Heidi Malalay Flores, an entrepreneur who was also a worker for an NGO, was killed last year, as well as a certain Boy Litong and his son, who was tagged in the list as a member of the NPA Sparrow Unit.

Senator Dela Rosa was surprised to learn that five out of the 15 persons on the list have been killed. “So the KaGubaK is a notorious organization,” he noted.

Lt. Col. Bonifacio Tecson, chief of the Guihulngan City Police, said he first saw the list in January or February 2018.

“About seven of them came to my office, among them Atty. Trinidad, Jessica Villarmente, Carlos Villarmente, Heidi Malalay Flores, Allen Alvarez, Dra. Cecilia…they came almost at the same time to deny they were NPA supporters. They had the incident recorded in the police blotter, and expressed fear for their lives,” Tecson said.

Atty. Trinidad had asked for security from Colonel Tecson but was told to submit a formal request which would have to be approved by the Provincial Police Director.

“If we provide security for all of you, we will run out of policemen in Guihulngan,” Tecson recounted telling Atty. Trinidad.

A bewildered Senator Dela Rosa summarized Tecson’s statement saying: “They went to your office to ask for security, and now they’re dead. Are you not stricken by your conscience?”

“KaGubaK has become a vigilante group. If I were the mayor [there], I would organize all these people who want to fight the NPA, and control this group to check on their abuses,” Dela Rosa said.

The Senator also said this group is sprouting because of the failure of government to protect the people.

“The least that you could have done was to advise them to leave the area temporarily,” dela Rosa told Colonel Tecson.

For her part, Senator Hontiveros said the fact that five have been killed confirms that this hit list is true, and that not to investigate this would cause outrage.

“Let us investigate the KaGubaK. It is not acceptable that you will be killed simply because your name appears on a piece of paper,” she challenged.

Both Hontiveros and dela Rosa agreed that government should exert more effort to protect the others in the list.

The other people mentioned in the list are:

1. Rose Sancelan, Guihulngan City health officer. She used to be assigned in the mountains in barangay Trinidad.

2. Jessica Trinidad- Villarmente is the No. 2 City Councilor of Guihulngan who used to work with the Negros Rural Assistance Program.

3. Carlos Villarmente is the husband of Jessica Trinidad, and manages some businesses.

4. Allen Alvarez is a brother-in-law of Carlos Villarmente.

5. Marilou Villarmente- Alangilan is a sister of Carlos Villarmente.

6. Noning Estrada

7. Amy Rabor is a midwife who works closely with Rose Sancelan in the mountain clinic of Kalabac-labacan of barangay Trinidad.

8. Josephine Saguran

9. Brix Nuevo used to be a community organizer. He now sells food.

10. Fr. Mario Ricablanca is a Franciscan priest.

11. Allan Archebuche is also a Franciscan priest. He’s been out of Guihulngan for the last 20 years, and is now in Libya.

Brig. Gen Debold Sinas, Police regional director for Central Visayas, said he first came across this list in 2018, but dismissed it as politically-motivated because it came out before the 2019 elections.

The probability of this list being a political tool is also being shared by one of the relatives of those in the list.

“How come one prominent political figure in Guihulngan, who is a known NPA supporter, is not in the list?” she said. (AP)

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