DAVAO CITY – Communist guerrillas allegedly killed more civilians than soldiers in Southern Mindanao, which is composed of the Davao provinces and Compostela Valley, in 2009, the military said in a report released Friday.
Captain Emmanuel Garcia, chief of the 10th Infantry Division’s public affairs office, said that of the 79 people allegedly killed in separate attacks by New People’s Army from January to December 17, 48 were non-combatants.
The civilian victims, Garcia said, included lumad leader Datu Leling Andresan, general manager of the Monkayo Ancestral Domain Management Office. Andresan was gunned down in August supposedly because of his dislike of the communist movement, Garcia added.
Major Randolph Cabangbang, spokesman of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, which has jurisdiction over Southern Mindanao, said the targeting of civilians showed that the NPA has become a terror group.
“One of their policies is to instill fear among the people so that they can get their demands. They do not aim to win the hearts and minds of the people anymore,” he said.
Cabangbang said most of the civilian victims yielded some influence on their communities and they included lumad leaders and village officials.
“They wanted the people to fear them,” he said.
Cabangbang said even the relatives of NPA leaders were not spared from attacks as in the case of Evelyn Pitao.
Pitao was the sister of Leoncio Pitao or Commander Parago.
Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA’s Merardo Arce Command, said the execution of Evelyn was reached “after an extensive and meticulous investigation established without any tinge of doubt her direct and clear complicity in three state-instigated political crimes against the people and the revolutionary movement.”
Garcia said some of the victims were killed inhumanely with three of them dying from slits in the throat.
“One victim, who was stabbed, was tossed in a ravine. Two victims were shot more than 10 times where one suffered a total of 13 gunshot wounds,” he said.
Garcia said the presence of family members also did not deter NPA rebels from executing their targets.
Other civilian victims, he said, were even tortured before being killed. –Jeffrey M. Tupas, Inquirer Mindanao
July 2025
Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
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July
3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day
5 July – World Youth Skills Day
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day
17 July – World Day for International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Monthly Observances:
Schools Safety Month
Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month
Weekly Observances:
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Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
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Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
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July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week
Daily Observances:
First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
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