Female cop killed in Victorias ambush

A large group of suspected New People’s Army rebels ambushed on Wednesday a contingent of the Regional Mobile Group. The ambushers also wounded four police officers who were escorting RMG chief Superintendent Ramos Zacharias Canieso who was on his way to the Barangay Gawahon police outpost in Victorias City.

The incident happened just a day after Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco issued an appeal to all armed groups in the province to give peace a chance, especially as the world is poised to celebrate the birth of Christ.

It was the first incident where a policewoman was killed in an ambush. And Western Visayas police authorities went out of their way to pay tribute to slain PO1 Jean Tacdao who joined the PNP only in 2006.

It seemed that the NPA may have speculated that the RMG troopers may have suffered demoralization because of the suspension of eight of their officers and trainers for the hazing last month of 51 members of the group undergoing SCOUT training at Camp Aniceto Lacson in Victorias City.

Canieso said the police were outnumbered by their rebel ambushers, who were reportedly deployed in Hacienda Mimi of Barangay Estado, a distance from Gawahon, their destination.

Caneso paid tribute to the police escorts who held off the rebels in an hour-long gunbattle. Tacdao, however, was felled immediately by a bullet in the head after the first volley of fire.

Canieso said it was a baptism of fire for the six RMG troopers who exchanged fire with the rebel group.

Regional police director Isagani Cuevas, on Thursday, pinned the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting on the four police officers wounded in the gunbattle, namely PO1s Melanie Tupas, Jocelyn Tibar, Annie Lou Patricio, and Marife Carpo Montemayor. They were cited for their courage and presence of mind.

Montemayor, however, was one of the eight instructors and trainers who were meted 90-day suspension effective Dec. 1 for having maltreated 51 policemen and policewomen in the Special Counter-Insurgency Course at the RMG camp.

RMG troopers from the Gawahon outpost and those from Victorias City rescued Canieso and his escorts from the ambushers. The reinforcements, however, were reportedly fired upon by the NPA blocking force.

It is evident that the big group must have moved into the city area without having been spotted earlier. The Wednesday ambush was one in a series of offensives undertaken by the insurgents in various areas in northern Negros Occidental.

This shows that the NPAs are still around despite the repeated announcement by the Philippine Army that they have become a spent force and would be eliminated by yearend.

Setback for Iloilo employees

Iloilo provincial employees may be in for a bleak Christmas. Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. vetoed last week the budget submitted by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Tupas billed the budget as defective, pointing out that it “failed to meet the requirements of the law.”

In short, Tupas explained, the budget only carried lump sum amounts for each department and office, and did not specify how much was intended for personal services, maintenance and other operating services and capital outlays.

It was reportedly an example of the adage, “House makes waste,” Tupas said.

Aside from rudimentary blunders, Tupas called the format confusing with even the figures presented wrong.

He reminded his estranged nephew, Vice Gov. Rex Suplico, that extreme prudence and care should be exercised in the preparation of the appropriations ordinance.

“Let me remind the members of the provincial board that an override of the veto will not rectify the blunders in the budget ordinance,” stressed the Iloilo governor.

I would have wanted to write about the Sandigabayan’s conviction of former Antique governor Jovito Plameras for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and who was meted 10 years in jail.

Plameras was found guilty for the irregular purchase of school desks and armchairs worth P5.67 million in 1997.

Plameras was also ordered by the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division to reimburse the provincial government P2.65 million for the undelivered desks and armchairs.

But there was something in the court’s decision that caught my eye.

It pointed out that the accused “was not born yesterday… he is a seasoned public official, and, at the time of the transaction in question, was governor of the province of Antique, not to mention that he is also a member of the bar.”

But the story had already been published by several newspapers and need not be rehashed.