CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Another farmer was gunned down in Bukidnon, this time in San Fernando town, on Wednesday night (Sept. 11), the police said Thursday.
Police identified the victim as Leonides Bacong, 63 years old, married, and a resident of Barangay Little Baguio.
Chief Master Sergeant Ric Ogoy, San Fernando police investigator on case, said two still unidentified suspects entered the victim’s house posing as visitors.
Ogoy said Bacong was with his wife and child when the assailants arrived at their residence.
“After a while, they had a short conversation with the victim, then one of the suspect shot the victim at close range with the use of unknown short firearm hitting the left portion of the victim’s neck,” the police report said.
The victim’s wife told investigators she heard the one of the suspects telling her husband they have something to tell him as he received the visitors inside the living room.
“When I entered the bedroom, that’s when I heard the shots,” Bacong’s wife was quoted as saying.
Ogoy said the gunmen fired three shots but only one of the bullets hit Bacong, in the neck. He did not reach the hospital alive.
“It appeared that the victim did not know the suspects. Even the wife did not identify them,” Ogoy said.
In a statement, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Northern Mindanao Region (KMP-NMR) said Bacong was a leader of the Bukidnon-based peasant group Kasama, the provincial chapter of the KMP.
The group said Bacong was the 15th victim of extrajudicial killing in Bukidnon so far this year.
“Brutal attacks against activists and rights advocates continue to intensify since Martial Law was imposed in Mindanao in 2017,” KMP-NMR noted.
Before Bacong’s assassination, tribal leader Leah Tumbalang was shot dead by two attackers in Valencia City, Bukidnon, on Aug. 23, 2019, the group said.
Tumbalang, a member of the Tigwahanon tribe from San Fernando, was also affiliated with the Kaugalingong Sistema Igpapasindog Tu Lumadnong Ogpaan (Kasilo), a lumad and peasant organization in the province, and a Bayan Muna organizer.
READ: Lumad leader, mother of seven, killed in Bukidnon
“Being a Lumad leader in their community, [Tumbalang] was at the forefront in fighting for their rights to ancestral land and self-determination,” KMP-NMR said. (davaotoday.com)
