Guingona family not ready to forgive rebels

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. AFP FILE PHOTO

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines–Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona spoke out Monday, following the New People’s Army’s apology over the ambush Saturday night that left his wife, 78-year-old Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie Guingona, and two persons in her security team wounded and two others killed.

“We are not ready to forgive,” said Guingona in a press briefing here Monday,

Guingona said it will take time for the family to forgive what they described as an “attack on an elderly woman who was bowing out of public service.”

He said his wife and his family are going through “a harrowing experience” and that forgiveness will come in time.

He said that while it is “very Christian” to forgive the perpetrators of the attack, the family begs to be given time.

The NPA, through its spokesperson in Mindanao Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, has sent its apologies to the Guingonas and to the families of the slain brothers Nestor and Bartolome Velasco, the mayor’s bodyguards.