CHR slams NPA attack vs. troops in Albay

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 22, 2023): CHR slams NPA attack vs. troops in Albay (By Connie Calipay)

Commission on Human Rights (PNA)

LEGAZPI CITY – The Commission on Human Rights in Bicol (CHR-5) Wednesday condemned the latest attack by suspected members of the New People’s Army against government troops doing a rescue mission in Albay recently.

Lawyer Arlene Alangco, CHR Bicol regional director, said the assault against two soldiers of the Philippine Army’s 31st Infantry Battalion last Monday in barangay Cotmon, Camalig town, was also an attack on the country’s peace and stability.

"(The) attack on the security sector is an attack on the peace and stability of the country, and the people they have sworn to serve and protect," Alangco said.

Privates John Paul C. Adalim and Mark June D. Esico, who were buying supplies for the search and rescue operation of the crashed Cessna aircraft in Albay, died on the spot after they were shot multiple times in a market in barangay Cotmon, said Capt. Frank Roldan, 9th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office (DPAO) chief.

Roldan said the communist rebels took advantage of the situation where members of the military were busy assisting other government agencies to search for the Cessna plane that crashed in Albay on Friday.

Then they found an opening to stage an attack against government troopers, he added.

Both slain soldiers were part of the security detail of an ongoing infrastructure project of Centerways Construction in Barangay Sulong in Camalig.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195791