DUMAGUETE CITY (PNA) — Suspected liquidation squad members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) gunned down Friday a policeman and a civilian in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, some 100 kilometers north of Dumaguete City.

Initial police reports identified the victims as SPO1 Ronie Marinog, assigned to the Guihulngan City police station, and a certain Budoy de la Peña.

Guihulngan police received a phone call at around 5:30 p.m. Friday that a shooting incident took place at the Carmenville Subdivision which is situated in the city proper.

Investigation showed that around five men, believed to be members of the Special Partisan Armed Unit (SPARU), the hit squad of the NPA, fired at the victims and then fled toward the mountainous areas of Guihulngan.

Both victims died of multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

Further police reports said De la Peña was the primary suspect in the killing of a certain Roland Vergara Sr. last May 6.

Vergara Sr. was identified as the brother of Irol Vergara, a detainee whose death became controversial last year after some policemen in Guihulngan were investigated for his mauling that took place inside the city police station’s lock-up cell.

Irol, 27, was allegedly badly beaten on May 16, 2009 by two other detainees with whom he had a grudge and was brought to the hospital where he died later of massive internal bleeding.

Guihulngan policemen on duty then became subjects for investigation by the Commission on Human Rights and the National Bureau of Investigation for possible negligence, leading to the death of Irol Vergara.

It was not immediately known why SPO1 Marinog was in the company of De la Peña at the time of the shooting.

Marinog was not among the Guihulngan policemen summoned by the NBI last year in relation to Irol Vergara’s death.

Sr. Insp. Petronelli Gracia, the police chief of Guihulngan at the time, had then said the police personnel who were invited by the NBI were SPO4 Eliseo Monreal, SPO3 Rodeliano Lagahit, SPO1 Nestor Pique, PO3 Abner de Lara, PO3 Anacorito Catubo, Jr., and PO3 Fermin Jacobe.

Guihulngan police are still investigating Friday’s twin murders while Philippine Army soldiers were immediately dispatched to help locate the suspects.