A doctor and her husband were shot dead last Tuesday in Guinhulgan City, Negros Oriental.

Initial report from Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office said Mary Rose Sancelan and her husband Edwin were on their way home around 5:20 pm when two unidentified suspects shot them in Barangay Poblacion, Guihulngan City.

Police said the suspects escaped.

The couple was pronounced dead-on-arrival in the hospital after sustaining gunshot wounds in different parts of their body.

Police are conducting follow-up investigation to identify and arrest for the possible identification and arrest of the suspects.

According to human rights group Karapatan, Sancelan was in the so-called hit list of Kagubak, a local anti-communist vigilante group involved in red-tagging several organizations and individuals in the islands of Negros.

“We are outraged with the brazen killing of Dr. Sancelan and her husband who were both employed at the local government of Guihulngan City before their tragic death,” Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said.

Palabay said in one of the flyers obtained by the local chapter of Karapatan in Negros provinces, Dr. Sancelan was tagged as a certain individual who is the alleged spokesperson of one of the units of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“The merciless death of the Sancelan couple reveals how the Duterte regime continuously turns various provinces into places of bloodbath since it passed orders such as the Executive Order No. 70 and Memorandum Order No. 32 to legitimize the intensified presence of the police and military,” she said.

“This pattern of killings of red-tagged individuals is precisely the cause for great alarm by many. There has been no credible and impartial investigation and prosecution of these killings, while the government through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) continues its dangerous spree,” she added.

Karapatan expressed its condolences to the family of the victims.

“We are one with them in their calls for justice and accountability,” Palabay said. Ella Dionisio/DMS