Apayao farmers beheaded, buried in shallow graves

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet - Relatives of farmers Emerson Frugganan, 43, and Reynante Menor, 33 of Barangay San Jose, Flora town in Apayao are seeking for justice after locating the two beheaded, chopped and buried in shallow graves more than a week after they went missing.

Police said the families of the two claimed the men went missing on July 3, after they went on a drinking spree on a rice field in the said barangay with Dexter Judi, 30, and Efren Valle alias “Bulut," 31, also farmers in the village.

After downing several bottles, the two were left at the said hut, police found out.

When Bulut went to check on the two, they were missing.

Ten days after, police, relatives and villagers formed a search team to locate the two. 

On July 14, Flora town policemen led by Senior Police Inspector Felipe Irving found unburnt remains of a black sack containing one blue brief, one red short pants, and two pieces of cut bones more or less 600 meters away from the farmhouse of a certain Efren Valle in Barangay San Jose. The found items were believed to be owned by the missing persons. 

The search led to the bodies of the two in the farmland at Barangay San Jose, Flora owned by a certain Felix Dagdagan, Sr.

Police said the victims were chopped, beheaded, and legs were cut, placed in three white sacks and buried in a 3-foot shallow grave.

Flora policemen said they are still clueless on what prompted the killing as well as who is behind it.