The names of three labor organizers killed in Negros Occidental last year by still unidentified suspects, and that of ex-Army Capt. Rene Jarque are included in the National Democratic Front "gallery of heroes and martyrs" posted on the CPP-NPA website.

The labor organizers were identified as Edwin Bargamento, Manuel Batolina and Mario Fernandez, all labor organizers of the militant National Federation of Sugarcane Workers in Negros Occidental.

The police have yet to identify the suspects in the killing of Bargamento and Batolina in Manapla, and Fernandez in Silay City.

Another NFSW organizer, Perseus Geagoni, was also reported missing by his family on Dec. 5 last year. His disappearance has been blamed on the military by militant groups.

Senior Supt. Charles Calima, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, said the absence of witnesses and refusal of the victim's families to cooperate, makes their job in identifying the suspects more difficult.

Bargamento and Batolina, both NFSW organizers, were gunned down in April and in June last year, in Brgys. Tortosa and Purisima, Manapla, respectively. Tests showed that they were from only one shot with the same firearm, a .45 caliber pistol, the police Crime Laboratory said.

The NFSW has accused the military and RPA-ABB, a breakaway communist rebel faction, of being behind their deaths.

The body of Fernandez, also an NFSW organizer, bearing hack and stab wounds, was also found in Brgy. E. Lopez, Silay City, on June 10. His death was blamed by the police on the Regional Founders Brigade, a robbery-hold-up group, five of whose members died in a shootout with policemen in Talisay City late last year.

The NDF negotiating panel chaired by priest-turned-rebel Luis Jalandoni described Jarque, son of retired Army Gen. Raymundo Jarque, former consultant for military affairs of NDF peace panel, as a "patriotic man of the highest integrity".*GPB

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