The Mount Cansermon Command-New People’s Army (MCC-NPA) dismissed the incident in Himamaylan City as “another fake encounter, another cold-blooded killing” after couple Marvin Incancion, 37, and Jolina Martinez, 27, were killed by forces of the 94th IB in their hut in Sitio Pisok, Barangay Buenavista, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental last August 22 at around 8:40 in the morning.

“According to initial reports, the two were arrested before being summarily executed by the 94th IB. Incancion and Martinez both suffered fatal wounds in the head, with the latter’s face being unrecognizable due to the shooting.”

MCC-NPA spokesperson Ka Dionesio Magbuelas clarified that there was no NPA unit present in the area. “The victims were unarmed and murdered by the bloodthirsty butchers of the AFP to fill their quota and maintain the false declaration of a dismantled guerilla front. To justify their crime, all their script had to contain was a made-up encounter with five fleeing NPAs,” said Magbuelas.

The rebel spokesperson clarified that Martinez and Incancion were ex-NPAs who left the revolutionary movement on 2023. Since then they were making a living in the area as farmers, but were “consistently red-tagged and harassed by the 94th IB to coerce them into availing the corrupt surrender program (E-CLIP)”. According to Magbuelas, the victims were raided by the AFP at least twice within the past year.

“In the desperate attempt of the AFP to terrify the masses through wanton violence targeting the helpless and defenseless, they themselves make it obvious that it is impossible to defeat the armed revolution when day by day they give the oppressed a reason to take up arms and resist the reactionary state’s fascism,” Magbuelas stressed.

The 94th IB previously declared that there are only five NPA ‘remnants’ left in South Central Negros. “With their murder of Incancion and Martinez and based on their own statements, there are only three NPAs left in the area. And yet their large-scale military operations remain, contradicting such declarations,” commented Magbuelas.

“So long as the people demand and crave for justice, the NPA and the armed revolution will continue to be inevitable and necessary. The victims of their human rights violations will serve as seedlings that will sprout another generation of revolutionaries willing to undergo sacrifice and dauntless even in the face of death to topple the system of impunity and fear,” Magbuelas ended.