By Pearl Gumapos
The Masbate City Health Office has released the results of an autopsy conducted on the two slain victims of the explosion caused by the New People’s Army (NPA).
In a Facebook post of 101.5 Brigada New FM Sorsogon dated June 11, the autopsy result showed that 21-year-old Keith Absalon bore a gunshot wound in his right eye, while his 40-year-old cousin Noven Absalon suffered a gunshot wound to the right shoulder and another to the left thigh.
The report stated the victims died from hemorrhagic shock secondary to the gunshot wounds and blast injuries due to the explosion, which clarifies initial claims that they succumbed to gunshot wounds.
The victims were cycling with their relatives when an anti-personnel mine (APM) exploded.
On June 8, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the NPA, took responsibility for the attack and apologized for “errors in military action mounted by an NPA unit.”
They offered any form of indemnification to the victims’ family.
The Absalon family, however, rejected any apology or indemnification from the CPP-NPA.
Keith’s mother Vilma said the apology does not give justice to her slain family members.
“Attaining justice does not start with saying sorry. Honestly, I want them gone. I want them to disappear and stop their destructive activities,” she said in an Inquirer report.
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar condemned the communist terrorists’ audacity in refusing to give up the perpetrators of the explosion.
“How dare they criticize the government and still use this instrument to deceive the people, but they condone their own people who kill innocent civilians? This is proof of what kind of ideology these groups have,” Eleazar said in response to the CPP-NPA’s statement for ignoring calls to surrender.
Eleazar added that only the culprits’ arrest and conviction in court can make up for the death of the two slain victims. – jlo
