CASH ASSISTANCE & PNP WOUNDED PERSONNEL MEDAL TO PO3 VILLEGAS. Police Regional Office-6 director Police Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr hands the check as financial assistance from PSMBFI and pins the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting to Police Officer 3 Constantino Villegas of the La Castellana Police Station during last Friday’s visit at Camp Montelibano.
Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday said the New People’s Army (NPA) leaders should discipline their men, following the January 27 brutal killing of nine people in Brgy. Puso, La Castellana, an incident which the military and the police called the "massacre of civilians."
The NPA leaders should also surrender the perpetrators to the police so as to give justice to the victims and their families, the governor stressed.
Marañon, who had long been encouraging the rebels to go back to the fold of the law, also criticized the NPA statement on the La Castellana ambush as "irresponsible."
Six days after the ambush, the NPA issued a statement admitting the crime and lapses on their part, but stressed they did not plan to stage an ambush.
In an audio-recorded statement furnished the media Friday last week, Ka JB Regalado, spokesman for the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command, said their only plan was to disarm the policemen and armed BPAT (Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team) members.
Regalado said the NPA is trying to keep in touch with the families of the victims to extend their condolences and give them financial assistance. But the families of the victims have rejected the compensation money offered by the NPA for killing their loved ones. Their financial aid can’t pay what was lost in the family, the governor stressed.
Eight of the nine victims have been buried over the weekend, with their families still crying for justice.
Ma. Cecilia Dingcong, wife of slain truck driver Enrique Dingcong, said no amount of money could bring back the life of her husband. "I want justice and not their financial assistance," she said during the burial Saturday. She described the massacre as very brutal and inhumane.
Buried at the public cemetery in Brgy. Cabacungan, La Castellana were slain civilians Joselito Lucban, Virginia Ordoñez, and truck driver Enrique Dingcong; barangay tanod (watchmen) Timoteo Esplegera and Ulysses Tamayor; and Ramil Compleza, Mario Ricablanca, and Jonathan Mateo, all members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT).
The slain policeman, PO1 Richard Canja, will be buried on Feb. 9, his family said.
The victims, together with 12 others injured and some civilians, were aboard a Fuso Canter truck on their way home from securing the fiesta in Brgy. Puso, La Castellana when they were ambushed by a still undetermined number of NPA rebels.
The burial of the five victims last Saturday and three others last Sunday turned out to be a rally with a combined number of 1,700 mourners and family members carrying placards expressing outrage over the incident.
Meanwhile, Regalado claimed that the NPA fired a warning shot to stop the truck but those in the truck opened fire at the rebels which triggered the shootout.
Regalado also denied they fired the victims at close range. But Senior Superintendent Celestino Guarra Jr., acting Negros Occidental police director, refuted Regalado’s claims. He said autopsy reports showed that the victims were shot at close range in the head.
Guarra also said the policemen and BPAT members could not have fired first. "Who can fire first - the firearms held in ambush position or the firearms which are still in the holster?" he asked.
The NPA said it regrets that the civilians became collateral damage to what could have been a simple and quick process of disarming the BPAT members and the policemen. The NPA will take disciplinary action against their military unit responsible for the incident and its head under the principle of command responsibility, Regalado said.
Regalado apologized only for the death of civilians Ordoñez and Dingcong, and the wounding of a 14-year-old boy and 11 others, during the incident in Brgy. Puso.
Col. Oscar Lactao, commander of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Murcia, Negros Occidental, also slammed the monetary payment of the NPA, saying, "It is not about money we are talking about here; it is about the loss of a loved one, of the victims’ right to live, and it is about justice." "If they (NPA) just pay damages to the victims’ families, will this justify that they can kill people unarmed and just compensate them with money?" he asked.
Guarra said they are filing murder charges and attempted murder charges this week against at least 20 NPA members who are suspects in the brutal killing in La Castellana.
Posthumous Award for Canja, Medalya Ng Sugatang Magiting for Two Wounded Cops
For his heroic act of conspicuous courage and commitment to the service which cost him his life, the late Police Officer 1 Richard Canja of La Castellana town was awarded the Philippine National Police Medalya ng Kadakilaan (PNP Heroism Medal) during last Friday’s simple awarding rites at Camp Alfredo Montelibano in Camingawan, Bacolod City.
According to Police Chief Inspector Rico Santotome Jr., spokesperson of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, Canja was fatally shot during an ambush staged by suspected dissident terrorists last January 27 in Barangay Puso, La Castellana which also resulted to the death of eight others.
He is survived by his wife Jolemar, 22, a native of Silay City, and their only daughter Krich Ember who is just two years old according to Santotome, who is also NOPPO’s Police Community Relations Branch chief.
No less than the Police Regional Office-6 director Police Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. awarded the PNP Heroism Medal to Canja’s wife in a solemn ceremony held at the Kanla-on Hall of the PNP Provincial Headquarters in Barangay Estefania.
Earlier, the PRO6 chief likewise pinned the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting (PNP Wounded Personnel Medal) to Police Officer 3 Constantino Villegas and Police Officer 2 Jeffrey Alvarez, both of the La Castellana Police Station, who were wounded during last Sunday’s (Jan. 27) early morning ambush in Barangay Puso.
The 33-year old Villegas has three children aged 15, 11 and eight months while Alvarez has a three-year old daughter. Both are from La Castellana town just like Canja and are now recuperating from their gunshot wounds at the NOPPO Medical Clinic inside the camp, said Santotome.
Cruz, together with NOPPO director Police Senior Superintendent Celestino Guarra Jr. and regional personnel and human resource chief Police Senior Superintendent Milko Lirazan led the awarding of the medals as well as in the turnover of financial support to the wounded cops as well as to the family of Canja, the lone PNP fatality shot during the attack.
Lirazan, who read the orders for Canja’s Medalya ng Kadakilaan, said that the devotion PO1 Canja had displayed to the police service to the extent of sacrificing his own life earned honors and credit not only to the PNP, but to the entire nation as well as contained in General Orders No. 32 dated January 28, 2013 and issued by PRO6, added Santotome.
The Public Safety Mutual Benefit Fund Incorporated also provided P10,000 financial assistance to the police officers belonging to the La Castellana PNP under Police Senior Inspector Gary Alan Resuma, the town’s police chief.
http://www.ndb-online.com/020513/local-news/local-news-la-castellana-ambush-guv-npa-%E2%80%98discipline-your-men-%E2%80%99
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