Negros Occ cops warned against NPA attacks

BACOLOD CITY ,Philippines  — Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, Negros Occidental Police director, issued a warning to all policemen in the province to be on alert against eminent attacks of the New People's Army.

He said the policemen could also be targets of the SPARU (Special Partisan Unit) hitmen of the NPA after the rebels attempted to assassinate soldiers in Brgy. Camindangan Sipalay last Friday.

The police and the Philippine Army have joined forces in the ISO campaign in the province and conducted a joint coordinating conference in addressing the problem, Guisihan said.

The soldiers, Lt. Rigor Borja and Cpl. Juanito Fernando, were attacked from behind by the rebels. Borja was hit in the back, Fernando sustained a bullet wound in the leg, while a civilian, Roderick Samolde, still has a bullet in his buttocks, he said.

The recent terroristic activities perpetuated by the NPA such as the assassination attempt on two soldiers last week despite the fact that the soldiers were not in combat operations, are "desperate moves," Guisihan said.

These actions of the NPA rebels were done merely to show that they are still around, but this is counterproductive, he said, as he dared the rebels to show their strength in the military operations against government forces and not to attack soldiers from behind.

Guisihan also said that the arson activities of the NPA rebels were also signs of desperation by resorting to coercive actions when the planters refuse to give in to their forced taxation.

He said that the farmers were the ones direly affected if farm implements are burned by the NPA rebels because this would mean they will have no work.

"So it is not the planters or the hacienda owners who are affected but the farmers who rely on the work in the farm for their daily subsistence," Guisihan said.