Reds own up to bloody Occidental Mindoro ambush

HONORED Police chief Guillermo Eleazaron Saturday hands to Ador Gongora the plaque honoring his son Cpl. Estan Gongora, one of three cops killed on Friday in Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CITY OF CALAPAN — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) admitted on Sunday that it was its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), that staged the ambush in Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro province, on Friday that left three police officers dead and wounded 10 others.

In a statement posted on their website, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena justified the attack as “necessary and just” because of “rampant military and police abuses” in counterinsurgency operations.

On Friday morning, a Philippine National Police vehicle carrying 14 policemen was ambushed by a group of armed men, instantly killing two policemen and wounding 11 others. One of the wounded cops died early on Saturday.

The vehicle was at the tailend of a five-car convoy coming from a three-day service caravan of Occidental Mindoro officials led by Gov. Eduardo Gadiano to remote and poor villages in the towns of San Jose and Magsaysay. Gadiano was unharmed.

“A unit of the NPA-Mindoro (Lucio de Guzman Command) ambushed combined forces of the PNP-Mimaropa’s 1st Occidental Mindoro Provincial Mobile Force Company and the 203rd Infantry Brigade on May 28 in Sitio Banban, Barangay Nicolas, Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro,” Valbuena said.

“The ambush could not have been successfully mounted without the invaluable support of the masses,” he said, adding that government forces should expect more attacks from the NPA.

In a phone interview on Sunday afternoon, Gadiano said the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which he chairs, condemned the “merciless” attack on policemen.

Sow fear among people

He said they were already on their way home when the rebels fired an improvised bomb toward the police car before peppering the policemen with bullets.

“The merciless killing of police or military [was a] means to sow fear among people to stop successful program delivery in the province.”

PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, who visited the province on Saturday to pay his respects to the dead and handed awards and cash aid to the families of the fatalities and to the wounded, vowed the police would go after the perpetrators.

Col. Hordan Pacatiw, the provincial police chief, said by phone on Sunday that their operations against the rebels continued with the help of the Philippine Army. —MADONNA VIROLA INQ