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DAVAO: Two members of a leftist peasant group were
shot dead and three others wounded in the southern Philippines,
police and leftist spokesmen said Friday.
The five men, riding a modified
motorcycle, were fired on as they passed through a Philippine Army
checkpoint in New Bataan town in the southern island of Mindanao on
Wednesday.
Soldiers were tipped off about
plans by communist New People’s Army guerrillas to infiltrate the
area, and shot the five when they refused to stop for inspection,
provincial police director Nestor Quinsay said.
The leftist Brotherhood of
Filipino Farmers said in a statement that all five men were members
of their group and accused the military of deliberately targeting
them.
Quinsay said he did not know if
the dead and wounded men were affiliated with any group. The
soldiers involved in the incident have been restricted to their camp
while an investigation is going on.
Local rights groups say more than
800 people have been murdered for political reasons since President
Arroyo took office in 2001.
Two months ago, a UN special
rapporteur also blamed the military for the killings, and said they
remained in “almost total denial.”
--AFP
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