NPA claims killing of Tubungan farmer
Communist rebels on Wednesday shot dead a farmer in Tubungan town in Iloilo whom they accused of committing abuses against residents.
The New People's Army (NPA) Napoleon Tumagtang Command in an e-mailed statement owned up to the killing of Arturo Tagudinay of Barangay Igdampug Sur in Tubungan, 41 km south of here.
The rebel command is under the Southern Front Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines and operates in southern Iloilo and parts of Antique province
Around 30 heavily armed NPA rebels swooped down on Tagudinay's house around 7 a.m. before shooting the victim dead, said Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Relations Service in Western Visayas.
The attack came barely a month after NPA rebels bombed and severely damaged a cell site of Globe Telecoms in the same municipality. The rebels had also overran and briefly held the town hall in 2005 in a daytime attack.
In their statement signed by Ka Ariston Remus, the rebels accused Tagudinay of being "a counter-revolutionary and anti-people element."
Remus said they had repeatedly warned and reminded the victim "to stop his crimes against the people."
The rebel spokesperson claimed that since 1998, residents of Igdampug Sur and neighboring villages have complained against Tagudinay for taking mangoes without paying for them. He also accused the victim of stealing and destroying the crops and livestock of his personal enemies and of indiscriminately firing his firearms.
The rebels had confiscated Tagudinay's.38 caliber pistol and 12-gauge homemade shotgun but his abuses only stopped for a short while, according to Remus.
He also accused the victim of using the name of the NPA in extorting from candidates in the 2004 elections and of killing barangay councilor Nilbert Camariosa during the canvassing of votes at the barangay's school last May 14.
"He was given sufficient opportunity to change ways but he refused to change. We hope this will serve as a lesson to other counter-revolutionary and anti-people elements," said Remus in the statement.
But Marquez refuted the rebels' claims. He said the victim was killed because "he refused to give in to the NPA's demand to give palay regularly."