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Friday, March 29, 2024

Remembering Digos City’s 1989 Gruesome Massacre

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Davao del Sur:   Thirty-one years have passed and yet the June 25, 1989 gruesome massacre is forever engraved in the heart and mind of Helen Dominguez who lost five members of her family on that fateful day.

A survivor and an eyewitness of the incident, Dominguez recounted the tragedy on a Sunday morning (9 a.m.) when people were gathered for worship at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Sitio Rano Barangay Binaton, Digos City in Davao del Sur.

She emotionally recalled that there were about 73 people who were members of the Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe.

Just about five minutes when the fellowship started, some residents rushed to the chapel informing them that the notorious group of the New People’s Army (NPA) headed by ‘Kumander Bensar’ is approaching.

Dominguez said some of them managed to run away and go into hiding while the others, including her family, were left behind and mercilessly shot dead by Bensar’s group.

“I ran and hid through the squash plants with my four-year-old child and prayed to God that we be spared from harm. I heard people screaming and begging for help but Besnar ordered his men to fire at them,” she said in the vernacular.

She added that members of the NPA went to the houses adjacent to the chapel and killed everyone who were caught hiding.

After three hours of the armed men’s killing spree, the group went back to the UCCP chapel and started singing and laughing about the carnage.

“Gunfire stopped at about noon, but what brought shivers down my spine was when I heard the perpetrators singing and laughing inside the chapel,” Dominguez said.

Sensing that the perpetrators already left, Dominguez along with her child stood up and saw bloodied dead bodies.

A total of 38 lifeless bodies including children and women were scattered at the chapel and nearby houses.

She cannot describe her anguish when she saw the lifeless body of his pastor husband who was beheaded by the communist group.

“They beheaded my husband. I lost five members of my family. You just don’t know how painful it is,” Dominguez said.

Moving on

Marking the 31st anniversary of the 1989 Rano Massacre, the victims were remembered through a tribute on Thursday (June 25), with a traditional 21-gun salute to honor the death of the tribesmen.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy personally attended the commemoration activity along with other officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the city government of Digos. PNA- Che Palicte

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