9 dead in Negros ambush

BACOLOD City, Philippines  â€“ Nine people, including a policeman and three barangay officials, were killed while nine others were wounded in an ambush by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas yesterday morning in La Castellana, Negros Occidental.

The fatalities were identified as Police Officer 1 Richard Canja of the La Castellana police station; barangay councilmen Lito Lucban, Teotimo Espleguera and Mario Ricablanca; Ulysses Camayor, Jonathan Mateo and Ramil Trompeta who were members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) assigned in the Barangay Cabacungan police outpost; driver Ricky Dingcong, and civilian Virginia Ordoñez.

The wounded were PO2 Jeffrey Alvarez and PO3 Constantino Villegas, Roger Behar, Jerry Lacuedo, Jamil Roma, Jason Oximar, Bonifacio Bayate, Cristituto Perolino, and Victoriano Donasco.

Investigators said the victims were on board a Fuzo Canter truck, driven by Dingcong, when the suspects ambushed the victims at around 3:45 a.m. in Barangay Puso, La Castellana.

Police said the victims were on their way home to La Castellana town proper after securing the fiesta celebration in Barangay Puso.

La Castellana police chief Senior Inspector Gary Alan Resuma said the three policemen and the BPAT members were assigned to help secure the fiesta celebration.

Resuma said BPAT member Edwin Sevilla, who survived the ambush, noted that the armed suspects - positioned at the sugarcane field along the road - fired at their vehicle and later shouted, “Mabuhay ang NPA” before they fled.

The suspects also took two M16 rifles from the policemen before they escaped, Resuma said.

Senior Superintendent Celestino Guara, acting director of the Negros Occidental police, said the ambush was allegedly staged by at least 30 suspected NPA members.

La Castellana Mayor Alberto Nicor who inspected the ambush site condemned the attack as an “inhuman act” perpetrated by the suspects, who reportedly shot the victims in the head.

Empty shells of AK 50 and M16 assault rifles, and .45 caliber pistol were recovered from the area.

Resuma and Col. Oscar Lactao, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said they could not confirm yet the involvement of the NPA in the ambush.

Troopers of the 1st Scout Ranger and 11th Infantry Battalions, 6th Regional Public Safety Management and 5th Maneuver Platoon of the Negros Occidental Public Safety Company have launched manhunt operations against the suspects, Lactao said.

Road checkpoints were immediately set up and government troops launched a manhunt for the attackers, who fled toward a forest in Negros Occidental, a poor, sugar-producing province about 470 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Manila.

Lactao said the attackers might have been members of an illegal logging group. Suspected illegal loggers killed a forest ranger in the area last year.

The killings are the latest in a flurry of gun violence that has revived calls for tighter gun controls. The country has long grappled with communist and Muslim insurgencies, crime, and armed groups controlled by politicians, warlords and powerful families.

Police estimate there are more than half a million unlicensed firearms in the country, down from more than a million a few years ago.

Sunday’s attack occurred despite a national 150-day ban on the carrying of firearms outside residences imposed by election officials to prevent violence ahead of congressional and local elections on May 13.

Meanwhile, a militiaman was wounded last Saturday after NPA rebels attacked a military outpost in Barangay Sta. Juana in Tagbina, Surigao del Sur.

1Lt. Jolito Borces, spokesman for the Army’s 75th battalion, said the NPA attacked the detachment but the militiamen repelled the attack and forced the guerrillas to withdraw.

Borces said some rebels were wounded during the firefight but he could not provide details.

Army troops discovered last Saturday an abandoned NPA camp in Barangay Mckinley in Catarman, Northern Samar.

Lt. Col. Noel Vestuir, chief of the Army’s 20th battalion, said the camp has 15 bunkers that could accommodate 15 to 20 people, a kitchen and a toilet.

“The government troops have dislodged them from their guerrilla camps and cut off their supply support lines that they forcibly take from the residents in the area,” Vestuir said.

With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Alexis Romero, AP