By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
THE chairman of northern Mindanao’s peace and order council on Tuesday sounded alarm bells over the series of attacks carried out by Maoist guerrillas in the region.
The Regional Peace and Order Council met and discussed the ambuscades and other attacks blamed on the New People’s Army since last week.
Emerging from the meeting, the council’s chairman, Mayor Oscar Moreno, said the RPOC was “very disturbed” over what he called as “atrocities” committed by communist rebels in different areas in the region.
On Thursday, the NPA ambushed a police convoy in an outlying village in Talakag, Bukidnon, killing a four-month old infant and a policeman, and wounding several others, including civilians.
Another ambush was staged by the NPA near the boundaries of Bukidnon and Iligan City on Sunday, killing a soldier and wounding another.
The NPA also exchanged firepower with soldiers in eastern Misamis Oriental where the military said the Maoist rebels planned to attack a power plant of the independent power producer Minergy. Earlier in Bukidnon, rebels burned the equipment of Dole Philippines.
Similar offensives were carried out in the neighboring region of Caraga where rebels also snatched two police officers early this week.
The NPA, which owned the responsibility for the attacks, was unapologetic except for the killing of the infant in the Talakag ambush which it said was “unforseen.” It sought forgiveness for the baby’s death and said it would work to indemnify the girl’s family.
The NPA spokesperson for northcentral Mindanao, one Ka Malem Mabini, said the series of attacks were staged in time for US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country because of the Asean summit.
Military and police authorities lashed out at the NPA’s move in seeking forgiveness for the death of the infant even as authorities prepared to press charges against the rebels.
Camp Alagar spokesperson Supt. Lemuel Gonda condemned the attacks on civilians by the rebels, saying the police would go to court.
Iligan police director Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga said police would press murder and serious physical injuries charges against one “Kumander Kiram” of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 68 and his men.
Ga said police were working to identify the rebel commander.
Kiram’s group was blamed for the killing of Army T/Sgt. Edgar Andal and the wounding of Cpl. Reymart Pamplona in the oulying village of Barangay Ragongon, Iligan City, near the Bukidnon boundary, on Sunday.
The Iligan police fielded its City Public Safety Battallion near Ticalaan in Talakag Bukidnon to help the 4th Mechanized Infantry Battalion in investigating the Sunday ambush.
Disclaimer
Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.
