PRO-18 chief: NPA claims vs. cops ‘purely allegations’

From the Philippine News Agency (Aug 2): PRO-18 chief: NPA claims vs. cops ‘purely allegations’

The chief of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-18 in Negros Island Region assailed the New People’s Army (NPA) for claiming that the slain policemen in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental were part of various illegal activities.

Those are “purely allegations,” said Chief Superintendent Edmund Gonzales, regional director of PRO-1.

Gonzales was reacting to the statement of the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command on Monday that they ambushed the policemen because of the complaints of residents on their alleged involvement in killings, abuses, and illegal drugs activities.

Gonzales said the attack was a “barbaric and treacherous act.”

Those who were killed were good men and had no criminal records, he added.

The six fatalities during the July 21 ambush were police chief Superintendent Arnel Arpon, Senior Police Officer 2 Mecasio Tabilon, Senior Police Officer 2 Teovic Agosto, Senior Police Officer 1 Jesael Ancheta, Police Officer 2 Alvin Paul Bulandres, and Police Officer 2 Alfredo Dunque.

Injured were Senior Police Officer 4 Jerome Delara, Police Officer 3 Jordan Balderas, and Police Officer 2 Jorie Maribao.

Policemen in Negros Occidental also jointly condemned the atrocity perpetrated by the NPA that claimed the lives of their six colleagues.

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) led the hanging of tarpaulin expressing their sentiments on the deaths of their fellow police officers.

At the entrance of the NOCPPO headquarters of Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. in Bacolod, policemen put up a banner Monday which read: “We are willing to die so that others may live, but we don’t deserve to be murdered. You died as heroes.”

“We condemn the terroristic and barbaric acts of CPP-NPA,” it added

Similar tarpaulins were also mounted in police stations in Negros Occidental.

For his part, Captain Eduardo Precioso, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, also condemned that NPA’s “treacherous and inhumane act.”

“I challenge the Grupo ng Karapatan to investigate the inhuman act, the violation of human rights that the NPA terrorists did to the Philippine National Police personnel and to the civilians that they attacked,” he added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1004389