Slain cop target of NPA ambush in Negros Occidental, says NOPPO director

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 29): Slain cop target of NPA ambush in Negros Occidental, says NOPPO director

The slain policeman was the target of the ambush staged by members of the New People’s Army (NPA) that killed nine victims and wounded six other civilians in La Castellana, Negros Occidental early Sunday morning.

Negros Occidental Police Provincial (NOPPO)officer-in- charge Director Senior Supt. Celestino Guara, who is also the head of the Task Force La Castellana to investigate and track down the suspects, theorized that hatred was the motive behind the ambush hatched by the NPA rebels against slain PO1 Richard Canja. He also cited earlier investigation made by the La Castellana Police Station that the killings were the handiwork of the communist rebels.  Guara's claim was corroborated by survivors and civilian witnesses who heard shouts from the armed group introducing themselves as members of the NPA before they left the crime scene.

A native of Brgy. Puso, La Castellana, PO1 Canja was a vocal critic of the rebels’ unlawful activities in the hinterland barangays of their hometown. Guara said no less than PO1 Canja himself organized the Barangay Peace-keeping Action Team (BPAT) with rebel returnees as majority of its members. This drew the ire of the leftist group against the police officer as the group has been deprived easy access to the area for mass-based support from hinterland residents.

It was Sunday morning when heavily armed rebels chanced upon Canja alongside PO2 Jeffrey Alvare and PO3 Costantino Villegas together with BPAT and tanod members and several civilians onboard the Fuso Canter truck when ambushed.  They were on their way back to their home base in Cabacungan onboard the Fuso Canter truck when ambushed early Sunday morning by rebel insurgents who sprayed them bullets of high caliber firearms.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=492146