Family of 3 shot dead, burned in Butuan

BUTUAN CITY — A farming couple and their 30-year-old son were gunned down and their bodies dumped inside their burning house here Saturday night.

"It was like hell as I saw the bodies of my father, mother and brother dumped inside our burning house. But I held on to my emotions as I hid trying to save my life," said Joel Pamat, 21, who survived the massacre, in the vernacular.

Pamat believes that the gruesome killing of his parents, Mateo, 57, and Ester, 54, and elder brother Glenn, had something to do with dispute over a four-hectare lot they bought from lumads (uplanders).

He said his adopted sister, nine-year-old Irene Grace, was still missing.

Pamat recalled that men armed with caliber .45 and .357 pistols and shotguns, arrived in their home in Barangay San Mateo at about 8 p.m. Saturday and demanded all the male household members to come out.

As they began walking out, Pamat said the unidentified men starting firing, hitting his father and brother. He luckily managed to escape unhurt.

While in hiding, he said the armed men dumped the bodies inside their wooden house, which they then set afire.

After the armed men left, Pamat said he went near their burnt house and saw the bodies of his parents and brother.

He then rushed to the house of Roger Tabamo a kilometer away to seek help and the two proceeded to a nearby Army-CAFGU detachment. The soldiers and militiamen responded and pursued the armed group.

Pamat told dxBR Bombo Radyo Butuan yesterday morning that the police failed to respond to the crime, saying Barangay San Mateo is rebel-infested and that it was risky for them to go there at night.

In his radio program, Benjie Balansag, assistant manager of Bombo Radyo Butuan, said he accompanied Pamat to the central precinct of the city police at 3 a.m. yesterday to report the massacre but was dismayed to see those on duty sleeping.

"One police officer whom we asked for help was even angry because we arrived in the wee hours of the morning," he said.

But Senior Superintendent Ramon Espiritu, city police chief, instead blamed Pamat for not immediately reporting the incident directly to the police detachment in Barangay San Mateo.

Espiritu said he has ordered his men to investigate the massacre.