NPA rebels kill 2 govt militiamen in CamSur

Communist rebels have killed the two government militiamen that the outlawed New People's Army (NPA) seized in Camarines Sur, a regional military commander said Friday. Lt. Col. Ernesto Cruz, commander of the Army's 42nd Infantry Battalion, said his men found the bodies of Edwin Belando, 47; and Stanly Portugues, 36; dumped near the house of a village leader in Taisan in Bula town around 8 p.m. Thursday. The bodies of the two militiamen bore torture marks, Cruz said. "I have seen the torture marks on the...bodies, indicating that they endured too much suffering from their captors. Each of them was shot in the head at point blank range," he said. The victims, both members of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU), were abducted by suspected communist rebels who burned two heavy equipment owned by Sunwest Development Corporation in Sto. Niño village Thursday. Authorities quoted accounts that the victims were hogtied and blindfolded when they were brought to Taisan. A villager claimed seeing the suspects repeatedly hitting the victims with their rifles. "I can hear their pleadings and their painful moans due to the severe beatings. They were killed and dumped near the residence of our village leader," an unnamed eyewitness was quoted in a military statement issued Friday. Related to party-list race? The attack on the construction firm and the abduction of the militiamen were initially believed to be part of the NPA's extortion scheme against local firms operating in the Bicol Region. But Col. Leoncio Cirunay, commander of the 22nd IB which administers all CAFGU personnel in the region, said the incident could not only have been about extortion. Cirunay said Sunwest Development Corp. is owned by a certain Zaldy Co, who is associated with the Ako Bicol party-list, which is among the leading party-lists in partial counts for the May 10 elections. "Ako Bicol part-ylist has dominated the polls this year and the terrorist rebels blamed it for the sudden decline of the supporters who voted for the party-list organizations which were campaigned for by the NPA rebels in the Bicol Region," said Cirunay. The Army's records show that in 2009 alone, the NPA rebels have killed a total of 34 unarmed soldiers, militiamen, policemen, and military informants. This year, the insurgents have killed a soldier, seven CAFGU personnel and four civilians. Major Harold Cabunoc, 9th Infantry Division spokesperson, said they would be filing complaints before the Commission on Human Rights. "It is an indication that they have indeed lived up to their earned reputation as bandits and terrorists," he said. The killings came only hours after Cabunoc appealed to the abductors not to kill their captives. "We are asking the abductors to respect the human rights of their captives because we are doing that on rebels we have captured.," Cabunoc had appealed on Thursday. — with Mark D. Merueñas/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV