Reds execute tribal leader, farmer in 2 N. Cotabato towns

KIDAPAWAN CITY -– Two suspected communist guerillas gunned down an Indigenous Peoples (IP)leader in a remote village in Magpet town in North Cotabato, around 1045 a.m., Sunday, police said.
Senior Inspector Felix Fornan, chief of Magpet PNP, identified the victim as Roberto Cupino, 56, mandatory representative of the indigenous peoples based in Barangay Don Panaca, Magpet.Fornan said the victim has just left his house after he talked to someone when the suspects, both armed with a long firearms, shot him in different parts of his body.
Cupino died on the spot.Investigators have yet to determine if the gunmen and the one that the victim has talked to before he was killed are, in a way, connected.The armed men were recognized by victim’s relatives as members of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA), the police said.Cupino’s wife and his relatives, according to police, have no idea why the NPAs have to execute the tribal leader.In nearby President Roxas town, also in North Cotabato, a resident of Barangay Alegria was also shot-to-death by believed to be NPA members, also on Sunday.The victim, according to reports, was playing with cards or ‘tong-its’ when the gunmen, all armed with high-powered firearms, pumped bullets into his body.
Authorities have no clues yet as to the motives of the killings.