No raps filed vs. Viga resident over IEDs?

From the Catanduanes Tribune (Feb 21): No raps filed vs. Viga resident over IEDs?

As of presstime last week, the Viga police has yet to file formal charges against a resident of barangay Magsaysay who was allegedly caught in possession of three improvised explosive devices last month.

A source, however, claimed that the Catanduanes Police Provincial Office has already directed the Viga MPS to file the appropriate criminal charge against a certain Rodriguez.

According an unconfirmed account of his arrest, an Army patrol spotted several armed men near a nipa hut in sitio Karorongan, Magsaysay sometime in January.

However, spotters of the armed men believed to be members of the New People’s Army tipped off the group, which had already left by the time the government troopers reached the hut.

The soldiers, however, found in Rodriguez’s hut three IED devices, two of them weighing eight kilos and the other four kilos, contained in used paint cans, along with five blasting caps.

The suspect was arrested and brought to the Viga police station and subsequently to Camp Francisco Camacho.

But Rodriguez was reportedly released upon request of a top provincial official.

Then on Jan. 28 at 10:55 A.M., the Philippine Army’s 83rd Infantry Battalion reported that a communist plan to ambush policemen and soldiers conducting COMELEC checkpoints was fouled when the IED the guerillas allegedly planted at the side of the national road in Sagrada, Viga suddenly exploded.

No one was hurt while there was minimal damage to public infrastructure.

The responding soldiers found wires still buried in the earth near the site of the explosion.

In a hot pursuit operation following the Sagrada blast, Army soldiers led by Lt. Jomar Clavel recovered a box purportedly left behind by community guerillas in an abandoned hut in barangay Almojuela at 7:30 P.M.; that night.

The box contained subversive documents, including campaign materials, printed banners and a flash drive.

In a press release on their website, the 9th Infantry Division condemned the NPA for continuously using IEDs in violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) provisions guaranteeing the security of civilians or non-combatants.

Certain police officers are allegedly dismayed by the failure of the Viga police to file charges against Rodriguez despite the evidence recovered and the subsequent explosion which could have resulted in casualties among checkpoint law enforcers.

The Tribune was not able to get a copy of the blotter report on the incidents at the Viga police station as the police officer on duty said his colleague who was in charge was not present that day.

The same reports were likewise not included in the summaries of incidents passed on by Camp Camacho to the local media.

It may be recalled that last November 2015, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) declared the security situation in Catanduanes as “Conflict Manageable and Ready for Development” and turned over to the provincial government the lead role in undertaking internal peace and security efforts.

The handover was formalized through a Memorandum of Agreement signed by Governor Araceli Wong and 9th Infantry Division commander Major General Yerson Depayso in a capitol ceremony in which AFP Chief of Staff General Gregorio Pio Catapang was present along with local political and religious leaders.

The Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) had earlier recommended the declaration due to the dwindling of the level of insurgency in the province in the past years as evidenced by the continuous decrease of their manpower, firearms, affected barangays and activities.

From more or less 200 members with 150 assorted firearms in the mid-90’s, the New People’s Army’s strength has been reduced to 27 personalities with 14 firearms, with all affected barangays cleared as of the 2nd quarter of 2014, the council reported.

http://www.catanduanestribune.com/article/3XSR