FDA chief Nela Charade Puno (left) talks with Corazon Vida, mother of PO1 Ralph Jason Vida, one of the three police officers killed last Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in an encounter with communist rebels in Lupi, Camarines Sur. (Photo by STEPHANIE FLORIDA / Inquirer Southern Luzon)
NAGA CITY — Food and Drug Administration chief Nela Charade Puno could not help but feel guilty about the killling of the three police officers by suspected New People’s Army rebels in Lupi town, Camarines Sur on Thursday.
The three officers — SPO1 Percival Rafael, PO3 Carlito Navarroza, and PO1 Ralph Jason Vida — were ambushed last Thursday, Oct. 18, while escorting Puno, who was to attend a consumer event in Daet, Camarines Norte.
“I feel guilty. I was supposed to be there, I was in the second vehicle,” said Puno, who was with the President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, Oct. 23, when he posthumously conferred the Order of Lapu-Lapu with the Rank of Kalasag to the three slain officers.
According to Puno, if she and her companions had not asked the police vehicle tailing them to slow down, they could have been the ones hit in the ambush.
“I have already talked to the relatives and they said I should not feel guilty,” she said.
She thanked the slain and wounded police officers for saving the lives of those in the FDA team. /atm