BANTULAY, JINECA S.

NPA KILLING FIELD FOUND IN LEYTE

Camp Aguinaldo, QC, July 2, 2000 - Government forces have discovered a mass grave
containing the skeletal remains of persons believed to have been executed by the New
People's Army (NPA) in a remote barangay in Baybay, Leyte.

Reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo yesterday the shallow graves skeletal remains of 10
suspected victims of a rebel purge in the early '80s dubbed as "Oplan Ahos."

That same period, rebels based in Luzon, on suspicions that military infiltrators abounded
in their ranks, also launched "Oplan Zombie" that resulted in mass killings of their own
men.

Capt. Rod Cabcabin, Civil Military officer (CMO) of the 43rd Infantry Battalion, said several
graves were merely one meter deep and less than a meter wide.

Four of the graves yielded more than one set of skeletal remains, indicating that the rebels
simply dumped the several executed comrades in one common grave. One skull even had
a piece of cloth tied around it, indicating that he or she was executed while blindfolded.

Digging is still underway in Barangay Monterico, 49 kilometers away from Poblacion

Baybay, according to Cabcabin.

Residents of the said village told the military that about 19 persons in their community
were picked up by the rebels in the '80s and accused of being military spies.