BACOLOD CITY – The Roselyn Jean Pelle Command-New People's Army-Northern Negros Guerrilla Front claimed the killing of two civilians in Barangay Minapasuk, Calatrava, Negros Occidental on August 9.
Cecil Estrella, RJPC-NPA spokesperson, said the victims were active intelligence assets involved in the counter-insurgency operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The group accused them of espionage and related grave offenses.
Estrella said the death verdict was promulgated two years ago but enforced only recently to give them ample time to mend their ways and cease their anti-people counter-revolutionary activities.
They were killed on the same day that a policeman died in a clash with NPA rebels in the barangay.
Estrella said the area where these civilians were killed was about three kilometers away from the encounter site.
The Calatrava Municipal Police Station was about to serve an arrest warrant on wanted NPA rebels when the encounter that killed a police officer and wounded two of his colleagues happened.
The RJPC-NPA claimed that it was an ambush but police said the incident was an encounter.