PNP, AFP probe fatal misencounter in Samar

POLICE FATALITY The body of one of the policemen killed on Monday in Sta. Rita town, Samar province, is retrieved by government forces. —REMSEN RAMIREZ

Lack of coordination and improper communication may have caused the mistaken clash between soldiers and police officers in Sta. Rita town, Samar province, an Army commander said on Tuesday.

Six policemen were killed and nine others were wounded in the 20-minute encounter on Monday morning at Sitio Lonot, Barangay San Roque, Sta. Rita. There were no military casualties.

Maj. Gen. Raul Farnacio, chief of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division (ID), said a deeper investigation of the encounter between an Army platoon and a Philippine National Police unit would be undertaken.

Coordination process

Military and police officials said 33 policemen from the 805th Company of the PNP Regional Mobile Force and 16 soldiers from the 87th Infantry Battalion (IB) were involved in the fighting.

The exchange of gunfire ended only after the soldiers were informed by headquarters about the mistake.

In a phone interview with reporters in Manila, Farnacio said the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines had long established a process of coordination during counterinsurgency operations in Eastern Visayas.

“Every time they (PNP personnel) operate … they send an official radio message and text message” to the 8th ID base in Catbalogan City in Northern Samar province, Farnacio said.

That information is cascaded down from division headquarters to the Army forces on the ground, he added.

“What happened here is their coordination was only with our detachment at (Barangay) Anibongon (in Sta. Rita) …. They did not say they were entering the area (to operate),” Farnacio said.

In an press conference hours earlier at the PNP regional headquarters in Palo, Leyte province, Farnacio and Chief Supt. Mariel Magaway, police regional chief, said the policemen on the field had coordinated their mission with their counterparts at the 87th IB.

They said in a joint statement that “appropriate actions” would be taken against those responsible for “any lapses” committed by either side.

“This is to ensure that this kind of incident will not happen again,” the statement added.

Farnacio said in the phone interview that the soldiers, who had been looking for New People’s Army guerrillas for six days, could not see the policemen’s uniforms through the dense vegetation.

They only knew that armed men were 50 to 70 meters away from their elevated position,
he said.

The soldiers shot first, Farnacio said, and an exchange of gunfire ensued. Both sides assumed that they were battling guerrillas, he added.

Acting Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the clash was “a very unfortunate event that nobody wanted to happen.”

“We are really very saddened by this incident as both troops were just doing their jobs of going against lawless elements and protecting the community,” said Año, a former Armed Forces chief of staff.

Board of inquiry

The Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of National Defense will form a board of inquiry “to determine the cause of this unfortunate event and draw up measures to prevent the same from happening again,” Año said.

He said the board would question concerned officials on why there was no prior communication and coordination between local military and police forces in the conduct of combat operations in the area.

The families of the slain police officers demanded justice, and Año assured them that they would immediately receive financial assistance.

All police casualties were ranked Police Officer 1.

Killed were Julie Escalo, Edwin Ebrado, Wyndell Noromor, Phil Rey Mendigo, Julius Suarez and Rowell Reyes. Wounded were Elmer Pan, Cris Angelo Pialago, Romulo Cordero, Joenel Gonzaga, Rey Barbosa, Roden Goden, Jaime Galoy, Rommel Bagunas and Jonmark Adones.

“That is all we want—justice—and whoever is responsible for this incident should be punished,” said Jessie Escalo, who is also a police officer and an older brother of one of the fatalities.

Escalo cried as one police officer handed him a P500 bill that his brother had promised to give him a week earlier.

Richel Ebrado, 30, who is six months pregnant, said her slain husband, Edwin, sent her a text message around 7 a.m., two hours before the clash. A friend told her later in the afternoon that Edwin was killed.

“I could not believe that he was gone. He just sent me a text message that he love me,” she said.

Farnacio said the soldiers led by 1st Lt. Orlando Casipit Jr. had been disarmed and held for questioning at their headquarters in Calbiga, Samar. —With reports from Ianna Gayle Agus and Fate Cobolong