Guihulngan IATF head, husband shot dead

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The head of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases or IATF in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental and her husband were killed in a gun attack on Tuesday.

Doctor Mary Rose Sancelan and her husband Edwin were on a motorcycle on their way home when they were shot in Barangay Poblacion. They were declared dead on arrival at the Guihulngan District Hospital.

Fifteen bullet casings for a caliber .45 pistol were recovered at the scene.

Human rights group Karapatan-Negros Island said Sancelan was included in the “hit list” of anti-communist vigilante group KAGUBAK.

“We believe that this is part of the liquidation operation of the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict),” Karapatan said in a statement.

”We are outraged with the brazen killing of Dr. Sancelan and her husband who were both employed at the local government of Guihulngan City. Their killing reveals that threats of tagging individuals as part of the New People’s Army (NPA) are not contrived,” Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said.

San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza condemned the killing, saying Sancelan was “branded, vilified, red-tagged and executed by ruthless pawns of the enablers of systematic killings in this country.”

In a video posted by the archdiocese of San Carlos last year, Sancelan said she was mistaken to be JB Regalado, the alias of the spokesman of the Leonardo Panaligan Command of the NPA, which operates in Central Negros.

Sancelan had said she ”felt helpless and paranoid” because of the red-tagging.

The Guihulngan IATF said Sancelan was a “dedicated frontliner” and instrumental in reducing the number of coronavirus disease 2019 cases in the city.

“We are confused and in shock at this painful fate befalling our public servants,” the local IATF said. – Emmanuel Tupas, Evelyn Macairan