Rebs admit killing cop chief

BACOLOD CITY – A spokesman for the communist New People’s Army (NPA) acknowledged yesterday that the guerrillas killed a Negros Oriental municipal police chief and one of his men in an ambush earlier this week.

But the spokesman claimed Army soldiers caused further casualties by firing on a group of police officers responding to the ambush after mistaking them for fleeing rebels.

Guerrillas opened fire Tuesday on the car of police Inspector Leopito Gallego, police chief of Vallehermoso town, killing him and his driver and wounding another policeman as they passed through the town of Guihulngan.

Boyet Maguilas, spokesman for the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command on Negros island, told a local radio station that Gallego was the rebels’ only target and apologized to the families of his driver and the wounded officer.

"We regret what happened," he said, but justified the killing of Gallego by accusing him of being used by "despotic politicians" and "very active in counter-insurgency."

He said a rebel blocking force later fired on a vehicle belonging to a group of Guihulngan police officers responding to reports of an ambush.

But the rebels stopped shooting after inflicting "light casualties" and seeing the police retreat toward a coastal village, Maguilas said.

Guerrillas reported seeing soldiers firing on the fleeing policemen, apparently mistaking them for rebels and inflicting more casualties, he said.

Three officers, including Senior Inspector Ramil Viscaya, Guihulngan police chief, were reported missing after the incident.

Army officers refused to comment on the allegation.

Maguilas said the rebels are ready to meet the challenge of the government’s "total war" against them "not only in Negros but throughout the country."

Last Tuesday, rebels raided a plantation owned by Provident Tree Farms Inc. in Talacogon, Agusan del Sur and torched heavy equipment before fleeing. — AFP