DAVAO CITY – The New People’s Army (NPA) apologized yesterday for the killing of a 44-year-old trader who belonged to a known family of businessmen in this southern city.
The victim, Vicente Ferrazini, whose family runs Mercantile Corp. (Merco) which operates a chain of foodshops and bakeries, was gunned down last Feb. 2 at the Bankerohan public market by communist rebels.
The NPA supposedly killed Ferrazini for providing the military with an area for its camp in a family-owned property in Barangay Catigan.
“As a matter of self-criticism, we apologize to the family of Mr. Vicente Ferrazini, as well as to the people in general for the highly regrettable occurrence,” Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA Merardo Arce Command, said in a statement.
The apology came amid strong criticisms from Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who condemned Ferrazini’s killing.
Sanchez said the Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Merardo Arce Command conducted an internal investigation into the killing.
He admitted that the reason why a lower NPA unit killed Ferrazini was insufficient. Reportedly behind the killing were members of the NPA’s Ka Paking Guimbaolibot Red Partisan Brigade.
Sanchez said the decision of the NPA’s lower court meting a death sentence on Ferrazini was also incorrect.
“Among others, we are prepared to make an indemnification for this and are open to meet and talk with the Ferrazini family via their choice of neutral channels,” he said.
Sanchez claimed that the communist movement stands for truth and that it would do its best to rectify whatever mistake it had done.
“This self-critical and public admission of fault is a hallmark of a principled standpoint, viewpoint and method of revolutionary movement. We stand for the truth and struggle for genuine justice; we admit errors and rectify mistakes and are steadfast and undaunted in accepting responsibility all in the interest of truth and justice,” he said.
Sanchez said the NPA’s admission of its fault in the Ferrazini killing was in sharp contrast to the alleged record of fraud and deceit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.