BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Fearful neighbors of the massacred Fausto family in Barangay Buenavista, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental have fled their homes.
The murders traumatized them, according to barangay officials.
The killings are also raising tension between the Philippine Army and the New People’s Army (NPA), according Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson.
The two groups have been accusing one another of being behind the crime.
Himamaylan City’s Mayor Raymund Tongson said in a radio interview that several witnesses have already surfaced but he declined to give details for security reasons.
At the moment, he said, the local government is focused on assisting the surviving members of the Fausto family.
Four members of the family were shot to death – Rolly Fausto, his Emilda and their two sons, 11-year-old Ben and 15-year-old Raben – last week.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said it will conduct an investigation independent of the police’s.
Barangay Buenavista is counted among NPA-influenced villages in central Negros where clashes that claimed the lives of several communist rebels and government troops have taken place in recent years.
Governor Lacson is calling for justice for the Fausto family.
The investigation by the police and the CHR, he said, must be expedited because the crime is further heightening tensions between government troops and rebels.
Shortly after the killings, the NPA accused the Philippine Army’s 94th Infantry Battalion (94IB) of being behind the crime.
The 94IB’s mother unit, the 303rd Infantry Brigade (303IBde), immediately lambasted the rebels, calling their allegations a “pathetic attempt by the insurgents to tarnish the Army’s reputation.”
The 303IBde assured the public that government forces were committed to uncovering the truth behind the massacre and bring the perpetrators to justice./PN
