WPP coverage mulled for 8 massacre witnesses

BACOLOD CITY – Police are considering to recommend placing eight witnesses in the Sagay massacre under the government’s witness protection program (WPP).

Chief Inspector Robert Mansueto, Sagay City police chief, yesterday said they are providing security to the witnesses who executed sworn affidavits that led to the filing of charges against nine suspects.

Earlier, the Commission on Human Rights recommended that a witness, a minor who survived the massacre that occurred in Barangay Bulanon on Oct. 20, be placed under the WPP.

But the minor has been taken from the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) by his mother, Mansueto said.

He said the woman was accompanied by lawyers and representatives of various progressive groups when she took the child.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) expressed belief that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), had a hand in the massacre.

The AFP issued the statement in the wake of denials by the CPP-NPA.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said the pieces of evidence pointed to the involvement of the communist rebels.

Last Friday, police filed multiple murder charges against two organizers of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) and seven others for the murder of nine civilians, whom the group allegedly recruited to their ranks.

The NFSW is reportedly an affiliate organization of the CPPNPA, according to Arevalo.

The police special investigation task group that probed the incident concluded that the victims were set up and made to be sacrificial lambs.

Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, Western Visayas police director, who presented the witnesses at a press conference in Bacolod City on Saturday, said their conclusion was based on the pieces of evidence gathered by the task force and on the testimonies of the witnesses.

CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison on Saturday accused the government of engaging in squid tactics to cover up the brains behind the Sagay massacre and shift the blame to the NPA.

In a statement posted on the website of the National Democratic Front, Sison said the massacre was allegedly a collaboration of the AFP, PNP and a paramilitary group.