BACOLOD City – Two officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) and a barangay captain were shot dead in separate incidents in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental on July 25.
The first shooting happened at around 12:55 a.m. in Barangay Hibaiyo, Guihulngan City.
The victims were 55-year-old Arthur Cordevilla Bayawa, high school principal in Guihulngan, and his sister Ardale Cordevilla Bayawa, 49, the Curriculum Implementation Division chief of DepEd – Division of Guihulngan.
An undetermined number of armed men forcibly entered the victims’ house by destroying the padlock of the main door, according to the Guihulngan City police station.
The Bayawas died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The armed men fled northward after the shooting, neighbors told the police.
The Bayawas died while being taken to the Guihulngan District Hospital.
In the other shooting incident, Romeo Arbole Alipan, 64, and barangay captain of Buenavista, Guihulngan, was shot to death at around 1:40 a.m. by armed men inside his house in another barangay, Poblacion in Guihulngan City.
Arbole died of multiple gunshot wounds.
No suspects have been named as of this writing.
Investigation is ongoing.
Philippine Army’s Brigadier General Benedict Arevalo, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, did not discount the possibility that the rebels may have a hand in the two cases.
He directed the 94th Infantry Battalion to be relentless in running after the New People’s Army (NPA) that tagged for numerous killings in the 1st District of Negros Oriental./PN
