The Peace and Development Team of the 47th Infantry Battalion helped in distributing Certificates of Land Ownership to eight farmers, and in processing the issuance of tenurial instruments to 104 more farmers in Brgy. Camindangan, Sipalay City, its commander, Lt. Col. Rodrigo Sosmeña, said.

Instead of recognizing the effort of PDT members, however, the New People’s Army, who claim to be the defender and protector of the oppressed masses, shot and killed one of its members, PFC John Ilisan, whom they also robbed of valuable items, Sosmeña added.

Citing testimonies of witnesses, Sosmeña said the unarmed Ilisan was shot in the back four times, and once in front, while he was already lying on the ground, to ensure his death, on June 19 in Sitio Cambugi-ot, Brgy. Camindangan, Sipalay City.

“This does not reflect a revolutionary anymore. This is no different from what hardened criminals do”, he said, adding that they even pointed their guns at the residents they met, while fleeing from the scene of the shooting.

In a dialog with Sitio Cambugi-ot residents, a day after the assassination of Ilisan, Sosmeña said the populace wants the permanent deployment of PDT members, to help them in their problems, especially with land issues.

“I also learned from the people how they admired the PDT members roaming around the sitios of barangays Camindangan and Manlocahoc in Sipalay City”, he said.

Since August last year, two PDT members of the 47IB have been killed, while two others were injured in NPA assassination activities in the hinterlands of Cauayan and Sipalay City, military records show.

Colonel Oscar Lactao, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said they will include members of the family who coddled the assassins of Ilisan as principal suspects in his death.*GPB

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