Mass graves: CPP/NPA's fair deal?
Last July 16, 2008, a mass grave of suspected victims of purging operations of the communist terrorists was discovered inside a cave in Sitio Natae, Barangay Bucalan, Canlaon City, Negros Oriental by soldiers of the 11th IB, 3ID, PA. The grave contains four skeletal remains among a dozen victims, including two women, who were allegedly summarily executed by communist terrorists for their refusal to cooperate with the rebel movement in the early 1990s.
More than 15 years have passed until barangay residents found the courage to divulge it to the Army immersed with them in their village. A team Army in coordination with Barangay Kagawad Irenea Canete and Eladia Jacosalem led the retrieval of the skeletal remains, whose identities are now in the process of identification.
Also, last July 27, 2008, a communist terrorists mass grave was discovered with the help of a rebel returnee in Sitio Igpatuyao, Barangay Poblacion, Sebaste, Antique. The exhumation yielded three sets of skeletal remains which believed to be that of Noe Obrique alias Pagong and Federico Romay alias Julie, both of Barangay P Javier, Sebaste and Gaspar Desales alias Dante of Barangay Bita, Culasi, all of Antique. The three victims belonged to the NPA's defunct Northern Front Committee, Panay Regional Party Committee (PRPC) who were summarily executed for being suspected as deep penetration agents (DPAs) of the government troops.
The victims were buried together in a shallow grave near the Igpasungao Falls in the said area. The victims of the NPA internal purge were reportedly tortured before they were killed. The skeletal remains were then brought to the Sebaste town hall wherein families and immediate relatives of the victims could claim their remains. Esperanza Romay, the mother of Federico Romay, said his son joined the NPA when he was only 18 years old.
Last August 28, 2008, the families, friends and relatives of the victims of Leyte mass killing commemorated the second anniversary of discovery of the victims' mass grave. The case still remains a mystery up to this time. Until now the perpetrators of the heinous crime remain unpunished. The CPP and the AFP are still pointing their fingers at each other for the killing although it is generally conceded that there could be no other group or groups that are capable of committing such dastardly act.
But of course, no insane man would admit participation in a heinous crime where he can be put to life sentence if convicted. At least 100 human remains were exhumed in Sitio Sapang Dako, Barangay Kaulisihan in Inopacan, Leyte on August 26, 2006.
For now, even without the aid of the court or an investigative body, speculation can be made as who the real culprits are since both the CPP and the AFP are capable of carrying out such crime.
However, suspicion can be drawn why until today there is no effort on the part of human rights advocates especially the militant KARAPATAN to rally and initiate investigation on the issue if the military are indeed responsible for the massacre?
Why they have been in silence since the discovery of the mass grave? They have been issuing statements disowning the crime but that is not enough to expunge suspicion that the communist rebels are not involved in the crime. KARAPATAN is a militant human rights advocate whose political lines closely run parallel to those of the local communist movement.
It has been strongly suspected that the communist rebels themselves did the killing. This suspicion can be substantiated by the established facts that the movement had previously undertaken multiple killing or "purging" to cleanse its own ranks from alleged "traitors" including the so-called "deep penetration agents" who had betrayed their comrades to the enemy. There is a big probability that these mass graves could be part of the movement's alleged cleansing operations in the Visayas.
The CPP/NPA reportedly undertook similar act when it implemented Oplans Zombie, Cadena de Amor and Missing Link in Southern Tagalog; Ahos in Mindanao; and, Olympia in Metro Manila. The party's denial of "purging" was, however, refuted by previous testimonies and claims of former NPAs who returned to the fold of the law because of fear that they might become the next victim of CPP's "purging" operations against suspected government's deep penetration agents. The CPP's alleged internal and widespread purgings are no longer a secret nowadays.
For those who are inclined to join the movement, they must think twice or thrice since once they are in, there is no other way to get out from it.