CAMP LUKBAN, CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar – Remains of four victims of the New People's Army contingent operating in Samar Island were exhumed and given a decent burial here recently.

Major Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, Commander of the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division (ID) said that the graves where the victims were buried were part of the untold many graveyards of the NPA's famous  "Oplan Ahos" uncovered last March 6 by the Army's 63rd Infantry Battalion (63IB) at Sitio Hepat, Brgy. Cajecsan, Mondragon town in Northern Samar.

Tabaquero said that reports reaching his office from Lt. Col. Joel M Paloma, Commanding Officer of the PA’s 63rd Infantry Battalion (IB) disclosed that the graveyards were discovered following a tip from civilians with personal knowledge about the atrocities carried out by the terrorist group as part of the latter’s nationwide anti-DPA (deep penetration agents) campaign sometime in the 1980s.

Tabaquero said that the four skeletal remains that were exhumed came from three different hollow pits about a hundred meters apart.

He disclosed that the said skeletal remains were exhumed by the elements of the 63rd IB with the assistance of the local Philippine National Police (PNP) and barangay officials so that the surviving families could give them a more decent burial.

Tabaquero also said that dug up from the first pit were skeletal remains later identified as belonging to Modoy Martirez of Brgy. Cajecsan; Esmen Adriasola of Brgy San Agustin in the second pit and on the third pit, those of father and son’s Francisco and Roque Tulin of Sitio Canawa, Brgy. Mirador.