BY CYRUS GARDE and RANIE AZUE
BACOLOD City – A member of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental mayor Magdaleno Peña’s civil security unit was shot to death on Tuesday.
A day after the 33-year-old Michael John Ruales was gunned down, the New People’s Army (NPA) issued a statement claiming responsibility over his death.
According to the police, two motorcycle-riding suspects fired at Ruales while the latter was driving a motorcycle with his daughter on board around 11 a.m. on Aug. 14 in Barangay Guinpanaan, Moises Padilla.
Ruales – who was on his way home at the time – sustained gunshot wounds on the head and body.
He was pronounced “dead on arrival” at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod.
NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command spokesman Ka JB Regalado said the People’s Revolutionary Court found Ruales guilty of “murder and conspiracy to commit murder.”
Regalado added that Ruales took part in killing Ka Jerry Turga, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas 5th District last April.
Ruales was also “instrumental” to the militarization of Moises Padilla as he worked with the 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army upon Peña’s orders, Regalado said.
But he added that not all members of civil security units are targeted by NPA forces, only those who have “blood debt” from the masses and the revolutionary movement./PN
