Sinas to NegOr cops: Don’t tag NPAs in killings unless there is proof

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office of Central Visayas director, holds a press briefing in Camp Sergio Osmena Sr., Osmena Boulevard, Cebu City on July 29, 2019. |  Alven Marie A. Timtim

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The police in Negros Oriental are warned about conveniently tagging the New People’s Army (NPA) as the ones responsible for the killings in their province.

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, gave this warning as the Negros Oriental police continued with their investigation of the series of killings there.

Sinas said that police investigators could tag the NPAs as the culprits of the crime but they should have evidence to back their accusations.

He said he was warning the police about this because if the investigators would hang the crime on the NPA without any proof then after that the case would come to a dead end.

“Kasi kung istorya dayun nato nga NPA ni, lisod kaayo mag imbestiga, dead end dayun,” said Sinas during a press briefing on July 29 at the PRO-7 headquarters in Cebu City.

(Because if we conclude that it is the doing of the NPA, it will be hard to investigate, it’s already a dead end.)

Read more: Sinas to public: Help stop Negros Or. killings, be vigilant, coordinate with police

Sinas has earlier ordered the police officers handling the cases on the killings to focus more on the motives of the killers instead.

He said that by focusing on the motives had gotten them persons of interest in some of the killings and these persons were surely not NPAs.

He said that it was the family members of the victims, who identified these persons of interest.

He also cited land feuds as among the possible motives of some of the killings and even one victim’s family claimed they lost P800,000 before their loved one was killed.

He said these would be looked into in the investigations.

However, he said the NPAs involvement could not be ruled out in some of the killings.

He said that they had evidence that some of the killings point to the NPAs as a possible suspects in the murder cases.

He also said that they already had persons of interest in the cases of Weny Alegre, who was killed in Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental, last July 24; Romeo Alipan, barangay chairman of Buenavista in Guihulngan, who was shot dead on July 25; Marlon Ocampo and his son, who were killed in Santa Catalina on July 25; and Federico Sabejon from Siaton, who was shot dead last July 26.

Sinas said that there were 17 people killed in Negros Oriental since July 23./dbs