BACOLOD CITY – The New People & # 39; s Army (NPA) has claimed responsibility for the death of the head of village Rhoy Pagapang of Barangay Libas in Isabela, Negros Occidental on Monday.

The Leonardo Panaligan Command-Central Negros Guerrilla Front, in a statement released to local media on Monday night, said the 38-year-old barangay captain was a "military possession."

Through spokesperson JB Regalado, the rebel group said they warned Pagapang for his actions because they put him on their list of targets in 2016.

They added that Pagapang defied them by continuing to report NPA activities to the intelligence officer of the 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army.

A report by the provincial police said Tuesday that Pagapang, a second main commissioned village, was shot about 10 am in the morning by four unidentified men next to a sugar cane field in the neighboring Barangay Cabcab.

Researchers retrieved eight empty cartridges from a .45 caliber pistol and one for 9 mm caliber pistol, the report added.

Senior Insp. Randy Babor, head of the Isabela Municipal Police Station, said in a radio interview Tuesday that the NPA, which takes responsibility for the murder of Pagapang, will direct their investigation to the perpetrators of the rebel group.

The assassination of the leader of the Libas village was the last in the rebel fights in the center of Negros, who claimed the lives of the barangay leaders.

On 10 August, NPA attackers also shot the former village head Agapito Euroba of San Agustin, also in Isabela, Negros Occidental.

On the same day the rebels shot dead until village leader Virgilio Masicampo Jr. from Barangay Nagsaha, Guihulngan City.

On 31 July they also killed Policarpio Bulado, the bodyguard of Guihulngan City Mayor Guido Reyes.

The 94th Infantry Battalion of the army led by Lieutenant Colonel Carlo Ferrer had previously condemned what it described as "the murder of the Leonardo Panaligan Command of the CPP-NPA" of innocent and defenseless citizens in the center of Negros. (PNA)