The farm worker who was taken away by unidentified men after an encounter between government and rebel forces in Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan, was still missing on Friday, March 3, the police said.
Dennis Sibil, 24, of Sitio Tapol, Barangay Carabalan, had been missing since Wednesday night, his mother Anyolina Sibil, 61, said on Thursday.
He had not been found on Friday and the police have sought the assistance of intelligence operatives of other law enforcement groups, Lt. Col. Reynante Jomocan, Himamaylan police chief, said.
Jomocan said the Army had given the evacuees clearance to go home following the encounter.
Meanwhile, the four NPA rebels killed in the Carabalan encounter remained unidentified on Friday, Col. Orlando Edralin. 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said.
No families have claimed the bodies yet, he said.
Brig. Gen. Marion Sison, 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division commander, condemned the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Negros Occidental “for robbing the people’s hard-earned money through their extortion activities”.
The Army said numerous extortion letters were recovered from the belongings of the slain rebels in Carabalan.
The extortion letters contained demands to businesses, especially in rural areas, signed by Armando Magbanua for the regional extortion group of the NPA’s Apolinario Gatmaitan Command, the Army said.
Sison called on the businessmen and Negreses to help fight the decades-long CPP-NPA terrorism by rejecting their extortion demands and reporting their illegal activities to government forces.*