Rebels on test mission ambush suspects

From the Visayan Daily Star (Feb1): Rebels on test mission ambush suspects

If the police is to be believed, New People’s Army rebels on a test mission are the suspects in the ambush of civilians and policemen in Brgy. Puso, La Castellana, Negros Occidental.

Senior Supt. Celestino Guara, caretaker of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, yesterday said the suspects may not have been aware that civilians had hitched a ride with the policemen, barangay tanods and members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team,on their way to Brgy. Cabacungan, La Castellana.

Guara said the target of the NPA were policemen and BPAT members, as well as the two rebel returnees. “They (suspects) may have been thinking that all passengers of the truck were policemen and BPAT members,” he added

Based on the accounts of survivors and residents in the area, some of the armed suspects were young men, police investigations show. The fatalities succumbed to gunshot wounds in the head. Guara said the ambushers were helped by rebels in the area, whom they had used as “look-outs”.

The barbaric killing of civilians elicited condemnation from families of the victims and government officials.

Before the incident, Guara said there were reports of “arms landings”originating fromother areas of Visayas in some coastal areas of Negros Oriental, citing Army intelligence reports.

Police probers are now validating the names of that cropped up in their investigation as the suspects in the massacre.

Jolemar Canja, wife of the late PO1 Canja, yesterday received an initial P83,500 assistance from the Public Safety Benefit Fund Inc., handed to her by Chief Supt. Manuel Felix, deputy regional police director for Administration of the Police Regional Office 6.

Felix saidthe two injured policemen, PO3 Constantino Villegas and Police Officer 2 Jeffrey Alvarez, both assigned at the Cabacungan police outpost in La Castellana, will receive the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting, for their bravery.

Villegas and Alvarez are expected to be conferred medals by Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, regional police director of the Western Visayas, who is expected to be at the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office headquartersin Bacolod City today.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2013/February/01/topstory3.htm