2 government road workers slain in Mt. Province

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – Two workers of a national government road project in Mt. Province were gunned down by still unidentified perpetrators earlier this week, belated reports showed.

Senior Superintendent Fortunato Albas, Mt. Province police director, identified the fatalities as Tabuk, Kalinga natives Edmund Rivera, 34; and Ben Balasi, 41; driver and heavy equipment operator, respectively, of PBO Construction.

The construction firm is one of the contractors of the government for the rehabilitation and concreting of the Bontoc (Mt. Province)-Kalinga national road, a major component of the Halsema Highway, one of the flagship projects of the outgoing administration.  

Earlier, five soldiers from the Army’s contingency troops manning the rehabilitation of the Mt. Province section of the P1.2-billion worth Halsema Highway project were slain by suspected communist rebels.

Reports said the two workers were on their way back from a nearby store to their quarters when the armed suspects waylaid them along a mountain pathway at Sitio Tabrak, Barangay Anabel, Sadanga town around 10 p.m. Wednesday.

According to Albas, the victims’ companions heard sudden burst of gunshots emanating from a mountainside, “But they ignored it, thinking that these came from government forces assigned nearby.”

“Their companions (recovered their) bloody bodies about 70 meters above the national road. They were mercilessly killed,” said Albas.

Rivera and Balasi sustained gunshot wounds on the chest and head, respectively, police said, citing initial medico legal findings.

Besides eight empty shells for a M16 rifle, also recovered from the crime scene were a pair of slippers and fragments of skull believed to be part of the victims’ head bones.