The 47th IB soldiers willfully killed elderly couple and Red fighters Pedro Gemodo, 61, and Juliana Arculo Gemodo, 63, on January 31. The two were wounded, captured, and shot in Sitio Agpapataw, Barangay Binobohan, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental after the 47th IB’s attack.

The 47th IB conducted the military operation with traitors to the revolution in Central Negros, namely Renante Mission (alias Tibor/Karding/Eman) and Renalyn Omboy (alias Mulan/Dayna).

The Gemodo couple, Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA)-Central Negros (Leonardo Panaligan Command), were fired upon while resting in a hut in Sitio Agpapataw. They were wounded in the gunfire but maneuvered to a distance. Their injuries rendered them hors de combat.

The soldiers tracked them down and instead of respecting their rights as prisoners of war, they were summarily executed. NPA-Central Negros spokesperson Ka JB Regalado condemned the 47th IB for violating the rules of war and international humanitarian law.

Before joining the NPA, the Gemodo couple were Kapunungan sa Gagmay’ng Mag-uuma sa Oriental Negros (KAUGMAON-Guihulngan Chapter) members from the late 1990s until 2010. They had suffered harassment and death threats since June 2010 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) after an encounter in Sitio Agpapataw that same month. In 2017, the AFP and operatives of the National Task Force-Elcac repeatedly coerced them to “surrender” despite being civilian peasants.

The NPA-Central Negros honored the Gemodo couple for laying their lives for the Negrosanon masses’ cause. Ka JB said they were “true heroes of the peasant masses and the revolution.”

“They valiantly faced the violence of the reactionary state and its puppet AFP, PNP, paramilitary, and NTF-Elcac forces,” Ka JB said. He added that the couple were revolutionary martyrs who fought through the storms of fascism in the guerrilla front to achieve national freedom and democracy.