By Rosa I. Tiempo

Calbayog City- On one chilly morning of Thursday last week, two men riding a motorcycle leading to the national highway were ambushed by unidentified armed men positioned at a bushy portion of the road, spraying them with bullets and leaving them lifeless, their faces beyond recognition.

The victims were the barangay captain Roberto Habiles, Jr. of Dinagan, Oquendo District, this city, and a farmer named Novito Ygbuhay. They were found lying in pools of their own blood a few kilometres away from the city’ s Sanitary Landfill.

The Scene of the Crime Operatives( SOCO) later found a piece of white paper with a written statement:“ OPLAN TUKLAW: WAG TULARAN KAP ADIK AT TULAK NG DRUGA. UDGS-

EV8.” The manner of killing was like that of the Victory Massacre and previous incidents, said a reliable source.

Also found were a quantity of empty shells of calibre 5.56 rifle, 9mm and. 45 firearms. The incident was said to be in retaliation to the murder of two political leaders two days earlier. Sources are saying the recent victims are just“ collateral damage”

in the continuing political murders happening in this part of the island.

Two days before the ambush, Janelle Belleza and Alex Regulacion were killed at close range by two armed men seated behind them on the same passenger bus they were riding. The shooting happened when the bus was about to stop at the national highway in Brgy. Sta. Cruz,

Tarangnan to check for a tire inspection.

After shooting, the suspects identified themselves as NPAs and fled in motorcycles going back to Calbayog. The police was able to recover a. 45 caliber pistol from Belleza.

Reports said that the vehicle of a PAG leader Arnold Belleza was spotted entering the compound of a village chief of a certain barangay in Oquendo district. The place

is adjacent to Brgy. Dinagan by crossing the Hibatang River. The suspects might have been cuddled by the village chief the day before the actual incident and on their exit after executing the crime.

In hot pursuit

CAGASMAS( Calbayog- Gandara-Sta. Margarita- Matuguinao-San Jorge) Task

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