Police General Oscar Albayalde, head of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday said the 14 farmers allegedly killed in Negros Oriental last Saturday were not massacred.

Albayalde, in a press briefing, said the 14 people died in different parts of the province and policemen were armed with search warrants.

The Commission on Human Rights ( CHR), in a statement, said its region sub-office has been instructed to investigate.

''Our interest is in finding out the truth behind a police operation, which authorities claim to be meant to serve warrants of arrest, but resulted to 14 deaths of farmers and a cop said to be injured,'' the CHR said.

“Based on the report from our regional director, this people they operated has previous involvement and being used by the leftists, armed New People’s Army ( NPA),” Albayalde said.

“Of course we are saying that these operations are all covered by search warrants. They have 36 search warrants in different parts of Negros Oriental. This (operation) did not happen in one place so it’s not true that it is a massacre,” he said.

According to Albayalde, if the incident was a massacre and there is an intention to kill all the suspects, the 12 arrested suspects should have died during the operation.

“Remember there were also 12 people who were arrested. So there are those who did not resist and were arrested. They are saying that this 14 (suspects) resisted arrest. Our police officer won’t fire back if they did not resist,” he said.

Albayalde said one police officer was wounded in the incident.

Albayalde said the PNP- Internal Affairs Service will conduct an investigation and the result are expected to be released immediately.

“We are saying that while we assume regularity in all police operations especially in this case that there are search warrants served, the IAS will always conduct investigations,” he said.

He said it was not mentioned those suspects were farmers but what is sure is their involvement in the leftist movement.

“What they are saying is they have previous participation on the alleged ambush of police and a certain master sergeant from the Philippine Army,” said Albayalde.

“They have intelligence information before they conduct the operation that is actually covered by an operational plan. This is not done recklessly, this is covered by an operational plan coming from PRO (Police Regional Office) 7,” he added.

Albayalde said they are ready to face investigation to prove the operation is legitimate. Ella Dionisio/DMS