A soldier was killed while another was wounded when Red fighters of the Leonardo Panaligan Command-New People’s Army Central Negros Guerrilla Front (LPC-NPA) sniped at the detachment of the Philippine Army’s 62nd Infantry Battalion (IB) in Sitio Casingan, Barangay Trinidad, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental last August 11, 2021 around 6:15 in the evening.

According to Ka JB Regalado, LPC-NPA spokesperson, the sniping operation was a response to continuing military abuses in Central Negros especially the 94th IB’s atrocities where its soldiers ransacked houses and threatened the lives of peasants in the mountainous parts of Barangay Santol, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental and Sitio Irene, Barangay Apanangon, Jimalalud, Negros Oriental.

“The 94th IB and a fanatic group led by Barangay Apanangon Councilor Karem Calpiz purposefully whitewashed their failures by brutally murdering Henry Brial and Junior Pedro in the afternoon of August 5 at Sitio Binigsi-an, Barangay Santol,” said Regalado.

The LPC-NPA, in its statement, also condemned the 62nd IB’s abduction of George Francis who was illegally arrested by the 94th IB together with Edwardo Mission, both Guihulngan City residents, after an encounter in Sitio Tibak, Barangay Santol.

Regalado accused the 94th IB and the Binalbagan Police force of deceit upon declaring on August 3 that they have released Francis following the expiration of the 36 hour reglementary period and evidence against him was insufficient.

He said that the family of George Francis is troubled and anxious that he is not under their roof up to now. They are worried that the 94th and 62nd IB will make Francis guide military operations and then kill him just like Brial and Pedro.

The LPC-NPA called upon the people to not be deceived by false promises of the fascist military and Duterte regime through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) of its National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

It also instructed all LPC-NPA units to mount successful tactical offensives in order to give proper justice to all victims of military abuses and of militarization in the countryside.###