MANILA, Philippines — Bad weather yesterday forced President Duterte to cancel his scheduled visit to the wake of the nine sugar farmers killed in Negros Occidental last Saturday.

Duterte was supposed to attend the wake at noon but decided to first visit the slain and wounded police escorts of Food and Drug Administration director-general Nela Charade Puno.

Three of Puno’s police escorts were killed and three others were hurt after unidentified gunmen waylaid her convoy along the national highway of Lupi, Camarines Sur last Thursday.

At about 7 p.m., the Presidential Communications Operations Office sent an advisory that the visit to the slain farmers had been cancelled “due to inclement weather.”

The National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), the organization to which the nine slain sugarcane workers belonged, is a legal front of communist rebels, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said yesterday.

Albayalde claimed this was the result of their background investigation, which uncovered that the group is being used by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

“The (communists) are using the group as a front to grab agricultural properties,” Albayalde told dzMM.

In a separate ambush interview with reporters, Albayalde maintained the involvement of the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) in the group.

He added there were indications that the communist rebels were involved in the killing of the nine sugar workers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental last Saturday.

The victims were only recruited to the NFSW on the same day they were killed by still unidentified armed men at Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon.

Their illegal occupation of the property apparently irked other farmers who are legal occupants and claimants, Albayalde said.

“This was apparently the reason why they were killed,” he said.

At least five to seven gunmen were involved in the killing, according to police. Investigators are not discounting the possibility some of the victims were able to shoot back.

The NSFW condemned the killings of its members, which included four women and two minors. The group said the victims were forced to plant vegetables and root crops to feed their families on idle land covered by the government’s land reform program but remained undistributed to poor farmers.

Two other peasant leaders belonging to the federation were killed in Sagay City last December and in February this year by suspected pro-government forces, the group said.

The NSFW said that about 45 farmers asserting their land rights have been killed in Negros Occidental province, which has a history of bloody land feuds.

Former Bayan Muna party-list representative Neri Colmenares had hinted that security forces were behind the killing, which the military in province disputed.

“We strongly condemn the murder of the sugar farmers. The killing was not committed by soldiers. Even Colmenares knows that. Sadly, he has become an expert in pointing the guilty finger at the military,” said Maj. Gen. Dinoh Dolina, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.

Dolina also said the claim that the NFSW is a communist front may not be unfounded.

“Unfortunately, the so-called links between NFSW and communist insurgents are true. No less than rebel returnees had validated that,” Dolina said.

Authorities are looking into the involvement of NPA rebels and an armed group identified as Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) in the killings.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will conduct a parallel probe and file charges against the people involved in the massacre.

Malacañang condemned the killings, saying it “adheres to the principle that the right to life shall remain unthreatened by proprietary interests, and this extends to agrarian settings.”

San Carlos, Negros Occidental Bishop Gerry Alimanza called for an impartial investigation.

“We call for impartial investigation and demand that justice is restored and help be extended to the grieving families of victims,” Alimanza said. –Gilbert Bayoran, Evelyn Macairan, Alexis Romero