Army troops of the 79th Infantry Battalion are tracking down the whereabouts of 20 armed men, including a woman, reported to have arrived in Guihulngan City in northern Negros Oriental on Wednesday afternoon.
The arrival of the unidentified armed group in Guihulngan City came on the same day that the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, headed by Maj. Gen. Jon Aying, had activated the 600-strong 2nd Negros Island Geographical Battalion in Negros Oriental at ceremonies in Dumaguete City.
Lt. Col. Roderick Garcia, 79th IB commander, in an interview Thursday disclosed that a civilian first reported the sighting of the said armed group, believed to be "Communist terrorists", to the police in Guihulngan City.
Garcia said he deployed his troops immediately after receiving the information to validate the report and now conducting operations in the hinterlands of Guihulngan.
However, due to the travel time and distance from their point of origin, his troops no longer caught up with the armed group in the lowlands.
A police report on Thursday also corroborated the Army report that around 3:10 p.m. Wednesday, a group of more or less 20 armed men, including a woman, was sighted by concerned citizens at Sitio Matu-og, Barangay Basak in Guihulngan City.
The armed group, wearing camouflage fatigue were on board two pumpboats that docked at the shoreline of Matu-og, said the police report from the Negros Oriental Philippine National Police Provincial Office (NORPPO).
The report further said the unidentified armed individuals walked across the national highway going to the hinterlands of Barangay Binobohan and Barangay Mani-ak of Guihulngan, a city about 116.3 kilometers north of this capital.
They were seen carrying assorted high-powered firearms to include Carbine and M16 rifles and a machine gun.
The police report further said the armed group was believed to carry out tactical offensives against government troops, vital installations and to disrupt the upcoming fiesta celebration of Guihulngan City on May 25 as well as the tentatively scheduled Federalism Summit there.
Lt. Col. Garcia said he strongly suspect that it was the Communist terrorists, referring to the New People’s Army (NPA), had arrived in Guihulngan and not the extremist kidnap-for-ransom group, Abu Sayyaf.
Garcia said, the lone female in the group was speaking the Visayan dialect.
Garcia further said these armed individuals could be remnants of the NPA’s South Eastern Front (SEF) operating in southern Negros Oriental, specifically in Sta. Catalina town.
Acting provincial police director Sr. Supt. Henry Biñas said the it would appear that the armed group was pressured by the ongoing military operations in Sta. Catalina which drove them instead to Guihulngan.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php/articles/988999
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.