Army execs decry brutality of attack

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

THE 4th Infantry Division yesterday cried foul over the ambush of three soldiers by the New People’s Army in Malaybalay, Bukidnon on Wednesday, calling it an overkill.

The slain soldiers, whose identities were still being withheld by the military, had over 20 gunshot wounds each, said Camp Evangelista spokesman Capt. Joe Patrick Martinez.

The military said one had 27 gunshot wounds, another with 26, and the other one with 24.

The soldiers were attacked in Sitio Kalib, Barangay Kibalabag, Malaybalay City at around 5 pm Wednesday, just hours after the National Democratic Front (NDF) announced that it has decided to terminate its unitaletral ceasefire effective Feb. 10.

The bodies were retrieved on Thursday morning, and investigators from the Scene of the Crime Operatives counted over 70 gunshot wounds, Martinez said.

He said pieces of evidence found showed that the rebels riddled the soldiers with bullets fired from M16 and M14 rifles, AK47s,  and .30 caliber semi-automatic rifles.

The soldiers were riding a motorcycle when they sprayed with automatic gunfire, Martinez said.

“There were NPAs who fired from the high ground, and then they finished the soldiers off,”  he said.

Col. Eric Vinoya,  commander of the  403rd Infantry Brigade, lashed out at the NPA over the “overkill.” He called the act “inhumane.”

Vinoya said the soldiers from the 8th Infantry Battalion were in the area for a community support program in Manalog, Malaybalay.

“They left the barangay because they needed to secure some documentary requirements for a livelihood project that they were facilitating in the community and to get their subsistence allowances. Unfortunately, they were flagged down and murdered by armed men as they were about to go back to the community. They were in civilian attire and unarmed when they were slain,” Vinoya said.

Vinoya also accused the NPA of taking the money and personal belongings of the slain soldiers. He said the acts were “criminal,” and were clear “banditry.”

Maj. Gen. Benjamin  Madrigal Jr., 4th Infantry Division commander, called the NPA “barbaric” even as he questioned the rebels’ sincerity in the ongoing peace negotiations.

“Is this what they call achievement of just peace? How can these NPAs say that they also want peace if they still continue to kill with impunity, continue to burn construction and production equipment, and kill innocent people?” Madrigal asked rhetorically.

Meanwhile, Camp Alagar alerted police officers in northern Mindanao in anticipation of more rebel attacks.

Chief Supt. Agripino  Javier, the region’s police director, sounded the alarm bells following NDF-Mindanao spokesman Jorge Madlos’s announcement on Wednesday that the Front has decided to end the unilateral ceasefire it declared in August last year.

Javier said the rebels could stage surprise attacks against police units the way it did in previous years.

He ordered tight security for all police stations across northern Mindanao.

“I instructed officers to be very careful, and to strengthen their positions,”  said  Javier.

Javier said the police units would fortify their positions and would be ready to defend because “we do not know what they (rebels) are thinking.”

Councilor  Romeo Calizo cried foul over the NPA offensives even as it criticized rebels for terminating their unilateral ceasefire while peace negotiations with the government were ongoing.

Calizo, a former military official, said the NPA stated that its unilateral ceasefire would take effect on Feb. 10, and yet rebels launched a series of offensives in different places in Mindanao this week, and even before the announcement was made.

“Ingon si Ka Oris (Madlos) nga Feb. 10 pa mo-effect ang ilang pag-withdraw sa ilang  unilateral ceasefire, unya  nganong daghan na man kayo silang gihimong pangataki ug pang-harass karon?”  Calizo asked.

He noted that rebels seized Pfc. Erwin Salan in Alegria, Surigao del Sur over the weekend, and killed three soldiers in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, on Wednesday afternoon.

Calizo accused the rebels of bad faith. “Ila lang gi-gamit ang ceasefire aron maka-maneuver sila. Huna-huna sa NPA nga pilde man sila sa kamas sa gobyerno, ceasefire lang    sa. Pag naghilom ang gobyerno kay na-ay  ceasefire, attack na sab  sila.”