Record number of killings in GenSan

GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines – The year 2009 saw a record number of killings which the military attributes to the so-called local terrorist fronts and death squads of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front.

In a recently released year-end report on NPA activities in southern Mindanao, the Army’s 10th Infantry Division revealed that from Jan. 3 to Dec. 17 this year, 79 people were bumped off by communist gunmen in the Davao area alone.

Of the number, 48 were civilians; 15, soldiers; 12, militiamen; and four, policemen – all in Region 11.

Nine murders each were tallied in February, May and July, making this the deadliest period of the year that was, in terms of the number of killings allegedly perpetrated by the leftist dissidents.

April and November had six each while June and August registered five killed.

September, December and January – with four, three and two fatalities, respectively – were relatively less bloody.

Many of the victims were unarmed village and tribe folks who had taken up various causes about the environment, peace and development, agrarian reform and ancestral domain.

In a separate report, the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference for Peace and Development disclosed that for the period 1998-2008, 357 Lumads were killed by NPA guerrillas. The death toll has now risen to 381, the report said.