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Farmers' group questions DOJ's probe into Sagay massacre

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ABS-CBN News

MANILA - The National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) on Tueday questioned the Department of Justice&#x27;s probe into the killing of its members in Sagay, Negros Occidental.In a statement, the farmers&#x27; group said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra was quoted in the media siding with the government&#x27;s claims that the Sagay massacre is a communist plot.&quot;[Guevarra] even described the government&#x27;s position of the Sagay incident as an &#x27;anarchical activity&#x27; and &#x27;threat to national security,&#x27;&quot; the NFSW added.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/21/18/several-members-of-leftist-labor-union-shot-and-killed-in-negros-occidental">9 sugarcane workers massacred in Negros hacienda</a></li></ul>Asked for his reaction, Guevarra said, &quot;the NBI investigation is still ongoing and we’ll go by what the evidence will show.&quot;The farmers&#x27; group also feared more red-tagging, citing the DOJ&#x27;s announcement to pursue the proscription case against the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People&#x27;s Army.They also cited the killing of Ben Ramos, the lawyer who assisted the 9 farmers killed inside Hacienda Nene. Ramos was included in posters tagging him as a communist rebel.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/07/18/slain-negros-farmers-lawyer-shot-dead">Lawyer of slain Negros farmers shot dead</a></li></ul>&quot;Would the DOJ tag NFSW in the proscription list if the NBI tags the NPA as the perpetrators of the Sagay massacre, or even Atty. Ben Ramos, who was red-tagged April this year,&quot; the group asked.The group told the DOJ to pull out its investigators from Negros if their intent is just to bolster the administration&#x27;s claim that the Sagay killing is a communist plot.General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, said last month that those who killed the farmers may be hired goons of the hacienda owner, fellow claimants of the land, or communist rebels.Albayalde claimed &quot;all indications&quot; suggest the <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/22/18/pnp-chief-tags-npa-in-farmers-bungkalan-campaign-in-sagay">participation of the New People&#x27;s Army</a> in &quot;Bungkalan&quot; that allegedly aims to &quot;create untoward incident then blame it to the government.Guevarra earlier revealed that President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the DOJ to relentlessly pursue the proscription case pending before a Manila court during a National Security Council meeting in Cebu.The DOJ filed a petition in March seeking the declaration of the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations under the Human Security Act and 649 of its leaders and members as terrorists.Four have so far been dropped from the list following a court ruling in August: former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo, National Democratic Front peace consultant Rafael Baylosis, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz and human rights and indigenous peoples rights advocate Jose Melencio Molintas.The DOJ is now in the process of publishing the petition in a newspaper of general circulation in order to summon those listed in the petition. <div>--report from Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News</div>

MANILA - The National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) on Tueday questioned the Department of Justice's probe into the killing of its members in Sagay, Negros Occidental.

MANILA - The National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) on Tueday questioned the Department of Justice's probe into the killing of its members in Sagay, Negros Occidental.