Responding policemen and soldiers arrive to see this heart-wrenching scene of uniformed policemen lying lifeless in the middle of a hinterland road in Sitio Mandi-e, Barangay Magsaysay, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental after they were ambushed and killed by a group of about 60 heavily armed men believed to be members of the New People’s Army.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Antreycabric Caballero Ricafrente
Barely 48 hours after the government suspended peace talks with communist rebels, suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas ambushed a local official and the responding policemen in Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental, killing seven and wounding five others.
The seven fatalities included the city’s chief of police, Supt. Arnel Arpon, who, according to an account of a surviving wounded policeman, was shot at close range by the rebels even as he lay wounded.
This was the first high-casualty attack staged by the NPA in the Visayas in recent years, coming on the heels of recent ambuscades staged by NPA elements in Mindanao that had led President Rodrigo Duterte to order on Wednesday the suspension of talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP).
Arpon and 14 other cops from the city’s police were responding to an earlier ambush staged against Guihulngan Councilor Edison dela Rita when they were also waylaid by the same group of armed men, according to Senior Insp. Armilyn Vargas, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office of Negros Island Region (PRO-NIR).
Dela Rita and his driver were wounded but survived the attack; but the councilor’s escort, Michael Jambalos, was killed, Vargas said.
Also killed were SPO2 Nicasio Tabilon, SPO1 Jesael Ancheta, PO2 Alvin Paul Bolandres, PO2 Alfredo Dunque and SPO2 Teovic Agusto.
Three other policemen — SPO4 Jerome Delara, PO2 Jorie Maribao and PO3 Jordan Balderas — were wounded and now confined at a hospital in Dumaguete City.
Senior Supt. Henry Biñas, Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office director, grieved over the death of his men and blamed it on the NPA.
“It’s unfortunate that this happened. This just proved that these CPP-NPA rebels are real traitors,” he told Cebu Daily News over the phone on Friday night.
“Our good policemen were there to serve the people, but what did they (rebels) do?” he added.
At past 7 a.m. yesterday, Dela Rita and his two companions, who were on board separate motorcycles, were on their way to the Guihulngan City proper from his farm in the mountain village Barangay Balogo when they were ambushed by armed men in Barangay Magsaysay, also a mountainous barangay.
The councilor managed to call an employee of the Guihulngan City Hall, who alerted the police about the attack.
Arpon, who just led his men in formation at the Guihulngan City Police Office, immediately formed two response teams, with him and eight others on board a Mahindra jeep, followed by six others on board motorcycles.
Before the reaching Dela Rita’s ambush site, however, Arpon and his men were driving uphill when fired upon by the armed men positioned up on the hill. Those in the motorcycles were able to fight back but were completely overpowered as the rebels, armed with high-powered firearms, numbered about 60, according to accounts of the surviving policemen.
Arpon was down and wounded when he was shot point blank by the rebels, according to one of the wounded policemen who asked not to be named for lack of authority to talk to the media.
The ambush came two days after the government canceled peace talks with CPP-NPA-NDFP and about two weeks after the PRO-NIR received information that the Guihulngan police were among the targets of NPA attacks.
Insurgency
Intelligence reports by the PRO-NIR showed that Dela Rita was among four personalities who were targeted for liquidation by the NPA, said police and military sources in the region.
Guihulngan, the only 5th-class city in the entire Negros Island Region, remains a hotbed of the communist insurgency.
Also targets for attacks were the police stations of Himamaylan and Kabankalan cities in Negros Occidental.
Col. Eliezer Losañes, 303rd Infantry Brigade (IB) commander, said he believed the main objective of the NPA was to attack the police and lure them in by staging an ambush on a local official.
Maj. Gen. Jon Aying, 3rd Infantry Division commander, said the 303rd IB was now pursuing the fleeing rebels.
Prior to yesterday’s attacks, the military said an encounter took place on Thursday night between a group of NPA rebels and troops from the 62nd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Marcelo, Calatrava, Negros Occidental. The fleeing rebels left behind a .45 caliber pistol and assorted personal belongings.
Supt. Carlos dela Cuesta, Negros Oriental deputy provincial director for operations, affirmed there were about 60 rebels who took part in the twin attacks.
“We will go after all these rebels,” he said in an interview over dyLA radio in Cebu.
Weekly threats
SPO2 Hazel Aclo of the Guihulngan City police said they have been receiving threats from the NPA for the past months.
The threats, she said, were sent through text messages to their police hotline numbers or voice calls to the police office.
“Sulngon lagi kuno mi nila (These rebels told us that they will attack us),” Aclo told Cebu Daily News.
“We received those threats every week,” she added.
Since 2015, suspected members of the NPA have staged at least six attacks against government troopers in different parts of the Visayas.
In May 2016, rebels owned up to the ambush in Toboso, Negros Occidental, that killed three soldiers and wounded two others who were patrolling the area.
The last encounter before yesterday’s deadly attack happened on Thursday evening in Barangay Marcelo, Calatrava, Negros Occidental, 81 kilometers away from Guihulngan. There were no casualties.
Just last April 2017, six provinces in the Visayas were cleared of communist insurgents by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Aying said the insurgency problem was resolved in Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Antique, Aklan and Guimaras.
Be vigilant
Although all three provinces in Central Visayas were declared “insurgency-free,” Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, the newly installed director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas, advised the police and the community to be alert at all times.
“We have already issued warnings to conduct preventive patrols and to check NPA possible atrocity in the region,” he said in an interview.
Guihulngan is just an hour away from Cebu by boat.
Espino said he immediately coordinated with their counterparts in the AFP Central Command to avert any possible rebel attacks in the region.
With the cooperation of the public, he said rebels won’t likely regain control of Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor.
“The PNP is working closely with the Central Command. We are monitoring all entry points, and we are prepared for whatever atrocities,” he said.
The last time NPA rebels staged a deadly attack in Cebu was 30 years ago, on July 17, 1987, when they ambushed and killed eight policemen and an anti-insurgent volunteer in Liloan town.
Col. Medel Aguilar, spokesperson of the Central Command and assistant chief of the unified command staff for civil military operations, said their troops are helping the police in fighting the rebels.
At present, he said the islands of Negros and Samar have been the hot spots for insurgents.
Justice and peace
Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino, in a statement, condoled with the families of those killed and wounded in yesterday’s attacks in Guihulngan City.
“My office is ready to assist the families of our police who were killed and wounded in ambush,” he told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
“My sympathies goes to the fallen heroes who gave their lives for the service,” he added.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma also expressed sorrow over the incident, saying there has to be an end to all atrocities between rebels and the government.
“I think this is a reminder that if they (rebels) want to have peace, there should really be proper ceasefire,” he said.
“There are still insurgencies in some parts of the country. And this leads to asking that if the peace talks are real or just merely on paper,” the prelate added.
Niño Olayvar, vice president for Anakbayan Visayas, said they were hoping that the incident in Guihulngan won’t be a reason for President Duterte to declare martial law in the Visayas.
“The recent attack in Guihulngan can be used as their basis to expand the declaration of martial law. This can also affect the possibility of continuing the peace talks,” he said./with, USJ-R INTERN Rosalie O. Abatayo AND CONTRIBUTOR JUANCHO GALLARDE