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DOLE sheriff saw soldiers fire guns in Luisita riot
Updated 06:35pm (Mla time) Dec 02, 2004
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service

Army soldiers fired their guns during the Nov. 16 dispersal of striking Hacienda Luisita workers and their sympathizers, at least seven of whom died, a labor department sheriff said.

Francisco Lintag, the sheriff sent by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to enforce the order to restore normal operations at the sugar mill, said this in a sworn statement to the National Bureau of Investigation.

"He saw soldiers rushing toward the strikers while firing their firearms upward," a summary of Lintag's statement contained in the copy of the progress report by the NBI's investigating team showed.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco on Thursday gave reporters a copy of the report.

"[W]hen the firing stopped, he [Lintag] saw several persons being brought to the hospital by ambulances," the report said.


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