Cops unearth "amazona's" body in Negros Oriental

CEBU, Philippines - Police in Oriental Negros dug up a body of a woman, believed to be an “amazona” (a woman communist guerilla fighter) in barangay Tubigon, Sibulan town yesterday afternoon.

Oriental Negros Provincial Police director Augustus Marquez told The Freeman that a team of operatives were able to exhume a woman around 3 p.m.

No further details were available last night Marquez said, considering that the team, led by ONPPO deputy for operations Rogelio Raymundo and Sibulan Police chief Renato Bureros were still at the site as of press time.

The woman was believed to be a member of the New People’s Army who may have been hit in an earlier encounter but eventually died for not receiving medical attention. She might have been dead three to five days ago, said police authorities.

Marquez said they will have the body checked by members of the PNP Crime Laboratory to know her identity and the cause of her death.

An encounter between the army and the NPAs ensued also in Sibulan last Saturday afternoon but there was no reported fatality. Only bags, firearms and subversive documents were recovered.

Marquez also corrected earlier reports that the three military men from 11th Infantry Battalion based in Guihulngan were not “ambushed” but were plainly killed by the NPAs.

According to Marquez an ambush is to kill with intent in an armed engagement, meaning both sides are armed. But in last Saturday’s situation, he said the three soldiers were in their civilian clothes and on their way home.

“So it was multiple murder, there is an element of treachery and use of superior force, that is not ambush and we will be filing charges against them after we sit down,” Marquez said.

The fatalities were identified as Pfcs. Joey Bajon, Reno Gonzaga and Leovigildo dela Torre, Jr., all natives of Panay Island, belonging to the Mass Base Operation Platoon of the Bravo Company of the 11th IB.

Marquez said the government forces are winning in the island of Negros considering that most of the encounters are government initiated.

There is now one front in Negros led by Domingo Compoc, whom Marquez had caught in 1985 in Bohol, but was eventually released after given amnesty during the term of former President Corazon Aquino. — Ferliza C. Contratista and Niña Sumacot (THE FREEMAN)