PRO-7 to investigate ‘Kagubak’ anti-communist group linked to NegOr killings

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7). | CDN FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Police Regional in Central Visayas (PRO-7) has started an investigation into an anti-communist group  for its  possible involvement into the spate of killings in Negros Oriental.

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, the chief of PRO-7, said in a press briefing on Friday, August 30, that the existence of the anti-communist group Kagubak, or the Kawsa Guihunganon Batok Komunista, was brought to the attention of PRO-7 by Senator Riza Hontiveros during their Senate inquiry into the Negros Oriental spate of killings on August 29.

Hontiveros had asked the police officials present during the Senate inquiry to find out if Kagubak members were connected to the spate of killings in the province, especially in the death of Lawyer Anthony Trinidad on July 23.

With this, Sinas said he has ordered Police Colonel Rizalito Gapas, the new director of the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO),  to investigate the group and its members, who are based in Guihulngan City.

Sinas said they learned that Kagubak first surfaced in 2018 claiming to be a anti-communist group based in Negros Oriental.

However, the police are yet to find any connection between Kagubak and the spate of killings, he said.

Other than asking PRO-7  to look into the anti-communist groups operating in the region, Sinas said the senators, particularly former Philippine National Police chief  Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa,  have expressed support  to the police’s effort to solve the killings in Negros Oriental.

Sinas said they were able to report to the Senate that the NOPPO already identified 17 suspects in the killing of the four policemen in Ayungon town on July 18, 2019.

Out of the 11 incidents of killings in the province, he said they were also able to solve four cases including the deaths of the policemen.

He said they also told the Senate that PRO-7 has proposed to increase the number of policemen in Negros Oriental.

“We asked for a possible recruitment of 2,000 policemen in the province,” said Sinas.

He said they would prefer that the new police recruits policemen would come from Negros Oriental so that they would no longer have to send policemen from other provinces or regions to the province.

The request for 2,000 new policemen has taken into account the number of police precincts in Negros Oriental and the new precincts that PRO-7 plans to put up in Ayungon, Sta. Catalina, Canlaon, Zamboanguita, and Guihulngan City, where most of the deaths occurred, Sinas added

Sinas explained that instead of establishing detachments like the Army does, PRO-7 twill establish precincts so the police will have a connection to the community and will provide services beyond conducting patrols.

“The(se) [precincts] can do blotters, they can file cases, they will be connected to the community,” he said.

Sinas said with the support of the Senate, they will be able to solve faster the 20 deaths in Negros Oriental from July 20 to July 28. Among the victims were  a former mayor, three barangay officials, a family of three, two teachers, and the suspected suicide of a key witness to the ambush-slay of the four policemen./elb