NPA behind killing of Albay peasant leader?

LEGAZPI CITY — An official of the Armed Forces’ Civil Relations Service (CRS) blamed the New People’s Army (NPA) for Thursday’s killing of a peasant leader in Daraga, Albay.

Maj. Ronard Rosario, head of the CRS’ 21st unit based in Camp General Simeon Ola here, said the victim, Jim Mirafuentes, 48, was not a member of the party-list group Bayan Muna but a leader of a local farmers’ group.

"I cannot understand why the members of Task Force Karapatan have to immediately include an ordinary farmer as a member of Bayan Muna and blame his death on the military," he said.

"They are hurrying up their tally of (victims) and forsaking an objective investigation by blaming the killings on the military," he added.

Last Thursday morning, Bayan Muna’s Camarines Norte secretary-general, Jason Aldwin Delen, 48, was gunned down in Daet town.

Mirafuentes was tilling his farm in Sitio Matagbac, about 30 minutes’ walk from Barangay Kilicao in Daraga town, when five armed men accosted him at about 9 a.m. the other day, said Superintendent Jose Capinpin, Daraga police chief.

Two of the unidentified men then shot Mirafuentes in the head and back with caliber .45 pistols and took the P30,000 he had earned from selling vegetables.

Mirafuentes’ wife, Lodovina, said her husband was rushing to clear his land so he could buy a brand-new motorcycle. Mirafuentes left four children.

The night before Mirafuentes was shot and robbed, Rosario said military assets spotted five NPA rebels, led by an amazon, brandishing long firearms in the area.

Rosario said it was Mirafuentes’ brother who was a member of Bayan Muna when Willy Marbella, the militant group’s regional coordinator, was still assigned here. Marbella is reportedly now based in Metro Manila.

Rosario said Mirafuentes’ attackers casually walked toward Barangay Pawa after the killing.