By NITZ ARANCON

Correspondent

CAMP Alagar yesterday ordered law enforcers in Bukidnon to step up operations in an effort to make those behind the ambush of a police convoy on Wednesday answer for what they did.

“Kanang mga tawhana, mga traydor na nga mga animal! Unya mo-ingon sila’g isog sila. Ingon an aba diay nang isog!” said a furious Brig. Gen. Rolando Anduyan, police director for northern Mindanao.

The ambush near the boundaries of Tikalaan and Dominorog in Talakag town in Bukidnon on Wednesday morning was seen as an insult and a blow to police efforts to improve the security situation in the area and elsewhere in the region. The attack, incidentally, happened at the time when Brig. Gen. Joselito Salido, a ranking Camp Crame official, was inspecting and evaluating the security capability of the police in Bukidnon and the region -- the ambush gave the general a clear picture of the state of police security in this part of the country.

In response, Anduyan ordered Bukidnon police director Col. Roel Lami-ing to make suspected rebels answer for the killing of Cpl. Ruel Sumaylo and the wounding of Lt. Ramil Gighe, S/Sgt. Jerwin Gemilla, and M/Sgt. Jovanie Manilab.

The victims, members of the Bukidnon police’s mobile force company, were in the lead vehicle of Brig. Gen. Salido’s convoy that was riddled with bullets by suspected New People’s Army guerrillas.

Silsa Madolen, Cpl. Sumaylo’s aunt, said the slain soldier left behind three children, aged one to five years.

Madolen called on President Duterte to give the family justice.

Anduyan’s order is for the Bukidnon police to arrest suspects and bring them to court.

An angry Anduyan lashed out at the NPA. “Unya, mo-ingon sila nga sila ang mogunit sa atong gobyerno? Mosugot diay ka nga kanang mopuli sa atong gobyerno, ilang natukod tungod sa ilang pagka-traydor? ’Sus, Gino-o, unsa kahay mahitabo sa gobyerno  kon ang nagdumala polos mga traydor?”

Lami-ing, meanwhile, called Tikalaan a “critical” area, adding the government forces have continued “hot pursuit” operations there.