TACLOBAN CITY- A two year old girl was shot and killed when a group of armed men, believed to be members of the New People’s Army, staged a shooting spree while in pursuit of a man who was once a member of a civilian armed group in a remote village in a Samar town on Good Friday, April 3.
Killed was Disley Arandia, who was sleeping inside their house in Barangay Mahanud, two kilometers away from the town proper of Matuguinao, Lt. Col. Seigfred Tubalado, commanding officer of the 43rd Infantry Battalion based in Gandara town, also in Samar, said. The girl, who was hit at her neck, died on the spot.According to Tubalado, six NPA members arrived in the village at around 8:30 a.m. with a mission to kill Jovic Obiado, 38, a resident of the village and once a member of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu)
Obiado was resting in the village’ waiting shed when the six armed men entered their village and immediately fired at him.Obiado, however, was able to run and escape with the NPA members running after him firing their guns indiscriminately, Tubalado said.“While they were pursuing Obiado, they were firing their guns and hit the house of the victim who was still sleeping when she was hit at her neck, killing her immediately” the Army official said in a phone interview
The child’s mother, Perlita, was in the kitchen, while her father, Junie, was outside their house at that time of the incident.Tubalado said that Obiado was being hunted down by the six NPA members for being a former Cafgu member.“Perhaps, the NPA members were on a test mission against Obiado for his being an ex-Cafgu member. He just retired from service recently from his assignment in Las Navas town in Northern Samar,” he said.
Tubalado condemned the incident describing it as “barbaric and a plain terroristic act.” (JAZMINE BONIFACIO/
RESTITUTO CAYUBIT)
