NPA mass grave discovered in Apayao

CAMP MELCHOR F. DE LA CRUZ, Gamu, Isabela – A mass grave of the traditionally Maoist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in the mid-1980s was discovered in a remote Apayao village last Thursday.

The grave in Barangay Apayao in Pudtol, Apayao, contained skeletal remains of at least four persons, which the Army said were reportedly executed in an internal massive purge by leadership of the Cagayan-Apayao-Ilocos Norte regional party committee during the 1980s and early 1990s.

“The existence of the mass grave shows that the rebels had no qualms in brutally purging their own ranks and killing anyone perceived to be military informers, including innocent civilians,” said Maj. Gen. Melchor Dilodilo, chief of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based here.

Dilodilo said combined Army and police personnel as well as local government officials and a representative from the Commission on Human Rights were taken to the burial site by two former rebels, identified only as Ka Jun and Ka Benjie.

The two former rebels, he said, had earlier informed Army officials led by Col. Remegio de Vera, 501st Infantry Brigade commanding officer, of the existence of the said mass grave, later discovered by elements of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. James Joven.

Ka Jun and Ka Benjie were party members operating in the Cain area with Ka Jun formerly being a top member of the Yunit Security in the area while Ka Benjie was a member of the NPA’s Regional Milisya ng Bayan (RMB) operating in the Zinundungan-Marag-Paco Valley area, who later surrendered to the government through Pudtol Mayor Batara Lawat.

The former rebels identified the remains found in the mass grave to be that of their comrades identified only as Ka Rumol, of Lal-lo, Cagayan; Ka Raymund, Ka Freddie and Ka Kaloy, all belonging to rebel groups under the Cain regional party committee operating in the Zinundungan Valley complex, the once seat of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Northern Luzon area.

They said the four were sentenced to death and eventually executed by means of bayoneting, victims of the CPP-NPA’s “Operation Zombie” allegedly launched in the mid-1980s to purge the party of perceived military deep penetration agents.