Surrender those responsible, military says

From the Visayan Daily Star (Feb 2): Surrender those responsible, military says

 The military yesterday challenged the New People’s Army to surrender its members who were responsible for the massacre of civilians and policemen in La Castellana, to answer for the crimes they had committed. The ambush claimed the lives of eight civilians and a policeman, and caused injuries to 12 others, police records show.

Maj. General Jose Mabanta, 3rd Infantry Division commander, yesterday said that the government and the Filipino people want a justice system that is not served through killings. “We don’t want to go back to the barbaric era, and while the NPA took responsibility for the killing, they should bring those culprits from within their ranks to the courts of law”, Mabanta added.

Capt. Ryan Joseph Cayton, Army’s 3rd Infantry Division spokesman, also described the alibi of the NPA as “another diversionary tactics to clear their name and escape from their guilt”. In the end, the fact is they killed civilians, including those who pleaded for their lives, Cayton added.

Their admission, Col. Oscar Lactao, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said, “shows that they (NPA) are no longer a revolutionary or criminal group, but plain and simple terrorists”. Lactao also noted what he calls the “deafening silence” of human rights advocates in Negros, to the latest atrocities of the NPA in central Negros, and welcomed the investigations by the Commission on Human Rights, that started yesterday.

In 2009, priest-turned-rebel Frank Fernandez, secretary of the Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros, also apologized for the deaths of three civilians and injuries of four others, who were mistaken as soldiers during an ambush perpetrated by the NPA in Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso.

The NPA in Panay also claimed responsibility for the ambush of a ranking leader of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade in Tigbauan, Iloilo, on Jan. 25

Mabanta also said that Romeo Nanta, who is the Regional Operations Command of the NPA in Negros island, will be among the 50 respondents for multiple murder, in connection with the ambush in La Castellana.

Nanta, who was freed from jail after posting bail of P100,000 for robbery-in-band charges, is suspected of being involved in planning the La Castellana ambush, Mabanta, said in a statement he issued.

He also said, “Nanta had benefitted (from) our judicial system and given a chance to live a peaceful life,” he rejoined the NPA after posting bail.

Mabanta also dared the human rights group Karapatan who had facilitated the bail for Nanta, to bring him out, and help the Barangay Puso victims attain the justice due them.

Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, regional police director of Western Visayas, yesterday conferred on the late Police Officer 1 Richard Canja the Medalya ng Kadakilaan (PNP Heroism Medal), that was received by his wife, Jolimar, in recognition for his heroic act of conspicuous courage and commitment to service, that cost him his life.

Canja succumbed to a gunshot wound in the head, as well as multiple gunshot wounds after he and his colleagues, as well as civilians, were ambushed by communist rebels in La Castellana last month.

Two other police survivors, PO3 Constantino Villegas and PO2 Jeffrey Alvarez, were also conferred the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting (PNP Wounded Personnel Medal) by Cruz at Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. in Bacolod City.

Villegas told Cruz that their ambushers were laughing after shooting the fatalities in the head.

Two investigators and a lawyer of the Commission on Human Rights from Iloilo, met yesterday with Senior Supt. Celestino Guara, caretaker of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, and have started their investigations on the incident.

CHR provincial chief Romeo Baldevarona said they will conduct an independent investigation of the La Castellana ambush, and determine the assistance to be extended to the families of the victims.

The Public Safety Mutual Benefit Fund Inc. also gave P10,000 as financial assistance each to Villegas and Alvarez, and P83,500 to the family of Canja.

The Seventh-Day Adventist independent ministry said it is also extending financial assistance of P4,500 each to the families of the eight civilians.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2013/February/02/topstory2.htm