6 killed in gov’t drive vs guns, drugs in Negros

BACOLOD CITY—At least six persons were killed while 15 others were arrested in simultaneous police operations against loose firearms and illegal drugs in Negros Oriental province on Thursday.

Senior Supt. Raul Tacaca, Negros Oriental police director, said the raids yielded 21 assorted guns and explosives.

Tacaca said the six fatalities resisted arrest and fought back during police operations. He said five of them died in Guihulngan City while the sixth fatality was slain in Santa Catalina town.

He said two of the 15 suspects arrested were village officials.

Brig. Gen. Ignacio Madriaga, commander of the Army’s 302nd Infantry Brigade, said soldiers assisted the Central Visayas and Negros Oriental police offices in serving 26 search warrants in the mountain villages of Guihulngan City and the towns of La Libertad, Mabinay and Santa Catalina.

Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, regional police director, said the police were focusing its operation on Guihulngan City, where 82 of 113 search warrants for loose firearms in the province had been issued.

The series of police operations against loose firearms in Guihulngan came a day after the New People’s Army (NPA) marked the 50th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines in an undisclosed area on Negros Island.

Ka Ann Jacinto, deputy spokesperson for the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command, said a construction worker was killed in Barangay Buenavista while four others, including a village councilor, were slain in Barangay Trinidad during the operations.

Jacinto said her parents, Delia and Dominador Isugan, both members of the farmers’ group, Kaugmaon, were taken into police custody even though no firearm was recovered from them. —REPORTS FROM CARLA GOMEZ AND NESTLE SEMILLA