Chief Supt. Victor Deona, Philippine National Police (PNP)
Bicol regional director, on Wednesday ordered a full investigation on the
reported misencounter on Tuesday morning between PNP members and a squad of
Philippine Army soldiers that killed a police officer and wounded another cop
in Sitio (sub-village) San Jose, Barangay (village) Maslog here.
Deona said he had ordered a no-whitewash investigation of
the incident, saying “I gave Sr. Supt. Marlo Meneses, Albay provincial
director, 72 hours to investigate whether indeed there was a misencounter and
recommend appropriate actions so that no similar incident would happen in the
future.”
In a phone interview, Deona assured that the probe would be
transparent, as the investigating team has already started gathering pieces of
evidence in the encounter site and testimonies from policemen patrolling the
area.
The investigation will also determine if there were
operational lapses committed, specifically, if there were “coordination”
protocols violated.
Quoting initial scene of the crime operatives (SOCO) report,
Deona said operatives have recovered an M16 rifle, cell phones, wristwatch,
empty bullet shells and slugs at the clash scene, which is about 200 meters
away from the barangay road.
Meneses said in a text message that two teams from the Albay
Public Safety Command (PPSC) were on security operations after receiving
intelligence report that an NPA leader would visit a relative in the village,
which was at that time celebrating its fiesta.
He said the teams were also responding to reports about the
presence of armed group in the area.
Army Lt. Col. Perfecto Penaredondo, commanding officer of
the 2nd Infantry Battalion, said in a text message that “as of now, we are
investigating elements of our unit who figured in a clash at almost the same
vicinity in Barangay Maslog yesterday.”
He said his squad of Army soldiers responded to an earlier
tip about NPA presence in the area, after checking with the City Police Action
Center in Barangay Taysan, a neighboring upland village in the southern part of
the city.
Penaredondo further said investigation is also being
conducted by his command to see if there are any possible lapses.
He said the firearms used by his men have been collected for
ballistic examination to determine if these were the ones that hit the PNP men
or the bullets were from the NPA rebels.
The alleged misencounter was reported by a press statement
issued on Tuesday by the New People’s Army (NPA) Santos Binamira Command,
saying that no members of their group were operating in that area when the
incident occurred.
The Santos-Binamira command claimed that the incident was a
misencounter as the police were engaged in a gunbattle with a group of Army
soldiers who were also in the same area.
The engagement, which lasted for 45 minutes, led to the
killing of PO3 Rene Balaguer and the wounding of PO2 Ronald Bondad, both
members of the 16-man Albay PPSC team.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=763651
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