THE National Police’s Task Force Usig has filed murder cases against 13 communist rebels allegedly involved in the separate killings of two businessmen, who were reportedly executed for their failure to agree to pay “revolutionary taxes” to the New People’s Army (NPA) in Masbate, the Department of the Interior and the Local Government (DILG) said on Sunday.

Assistant Secretary for Public Order Danilo Valero said that as of the first week of this month, Task Force Usig has also revived two murder cases, one against Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA founder Jose Maria Sison, involving the killings of political activists that were earlier classified as “cold cases”

Cold cases refer to those without any development or progress in the investigation for more than a year.

Valero said that in a report by Director Jefferson Soriano, Task Force Using commander, two separate murder cases were filed before the Masbate Provincial Prosecutor’s Office against 13 suspects and several other still unidentified persons for the killings of businessmen Virgilio Baginbin on February 26 and Leonardo Narido on February 27 in the town of Esperanto in Masbate.

Task Force Usig said the modus operandi applied by the suspects in the summary killings of the two businessmen was “practically identical,” as both were first handcuffed and then forcibly dragged to their respective places of execution.

Investigation showed that the primary motive for the killings was “the failure [of the victims] to accede to the rebels’ extortion activities,” said Soriano, who also heads the National Police Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM).

Task Force Usig identified the suspects in these killings as Dindo Mosanto, Jerry Mahinan, Allan Bulan, Sonny Tamayo, Luding Tulingin, Bienvenido Tuing, Berot Bultro, Marion Dumagan, Duarding Nuñez, Joel Certifi, Juanito Tamayo, Bordek Reyes and Danilo Mendoza.

In Cagayan, Soriano said the task force reinvestigated and refiled last month a case for murder against Sison, along with Saturnino Agunoy and Sonny Pajarillo, for the killing of Joey Javier two years ago.

In Mindoro Occidental the regional team of Task Force Usig revived a cold case involving the murder of Adrian Soriano in 2004. Soriano is believed to have been killed by a certain Rex Berco and a still-unidentified person. However, further investigation showed that Berco was killed by a certain Renaldo Isidro in 2005 in Mindoro Occidental.

The task force has filed cases against many of the suspects in the killings of 141 political activists and journalists.

Valero noted that 17 of the suspects in these cases are either soldiers, policemen or militiamen, indicating that, “Task Force Usig has left no stone unturned in its efforts to get to the bottom of these murders and put their perpetrators behind bars.”

He said Task Force Usig has thus far handled 141 cases involving the killing of 113 party-list members and other political activists and 28 mediamen.

As for the 28 media killings since 2001, he disclosed that 22 cases have already been filed in court, two others are under investigation and four more are considered cold cases.

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THE National Police’s Task Force Usig has filed murder cases against 13 communist rebels allegedly involved in the separate killings of two businessmen, who were reportedly executed for their failure to agree to pay “revolutionary taxes” to the New People’s Army (NPA) in Masbate,

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