MANILA – Suspected members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) tortured and then killed a militiaman in front of his family in a town on the island province of Catanduanes in the Bicol Region, a military spokesman reported on Tuesday.
The spokesman identified the victim as Elmer Eusebio, a member of a paramilitary unit in the town of Pandan, Catanduanes, who was reportedly killed for still unknown reasons by the rebels.
Citing the testimonies of members of the victim’s family, the spokesman said Eusebio was playing with his children inside his house in a “barangay†(village) in Pandan Monday afternoon when the suspects arrived.
The suspects, who identified themselves as NPA members and heavily armed, dragged Eusebio outside, ignoring the appeals of his wife and their children, the spokesman added.
While outside, the spokesman said the suspects started hitting Eusebio with the butts of their rifles until he was bleeding profusely, he said.
After subjecting Eusebio to heavy punishment, some of the rebels started firing at Eusebio, killing him on the spot while their cohorts started shouting “Mabuhay ang Rebolusyunariong Kilusan†(Hail to the Revolutionary Movement).
The NPA is the armed element of the Communist Party of the Philippines which has been waging a “people’s war†against the government for more than 40 years, considered the longest in Asia and the Pacific.
In a related development, the spokesman reported that suspected NPAs killed at least five soldiers in remote villages in Abra province in the Cordillera Administration Region in the Northern Luzon highlands.
Their death brought to 10 the total number of soldiers who were killed by the rebels in the Cordillera since last week.
The spokesman said the fatalities were among a group of soldiers conducting “community relations activities,†like building a barangay hall and launching medical missions in the remote and mountainous town of Malibcong, Abra Sunday afternoon when they were attacked by the rebels.
Aside from killing the five soldiers, the rebels also shot and wounded eight other colleagues before they fled, according to the spokesman.
Last week, five soldiers were also killed in an encounter with NPA rebels in a village in the capital town of Bontoc, Mountain Province, also in the Cordillera.
The spokesman said this was the fiercest battle between government forces and the NPA in the region since the start of the year.
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