Maj. Ramon Ronald Rosario, Southern Luzon spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Civil Relations Service, identified the victims as Cpl. Roger Pastrana, of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, and Isaias Sta. Rosa, 47, a former pastor of the Redemptorist Church and a freelance writer of various non-government organizations in the Bicol region and Metro Manila.
Quoting initial reports, Rosario said the armed men chanced upon Pastrana, who was relieved of his duties at the Military Intelligence Battalion and sent for schooling last June, while he was on his way to court a girl in Barangay Malobago.
Rosario denied reports that Pastrana was among the masked men who gunned down Sta. Rosa a few meters away from the freelance writer’s residence.
Sta. Rosa’s younger brother Rey told reporters that the armed men, clad in black T-shirts and fatigue pants and brandishing short firearms, barged into his house and asked for his brother’s whereabouts.
He said they then dragged his brother out of house, tied his hands and brought him to a nearby creek from where he heard nine gunshots fired.
Rey said they saw the soldier’s body a few meters away from his brother’s.