ILAGAN, Isabela—The New People’s Army (NPA) unit in western Cagayan has owned responsibility and apologized for the May 27 ambush of a team of the police special action force (SAF) that killed eight policemen in Allacapan, Cagayan.
In a statement released on May 29, Crispin Apolinario, spokesperson of the NPA’s Danilo Ben Command, apologized to the families of the slain policemen for the attack, which, he said, was intended to compel the SAF to withdraw from Allacapan.
The policemen, who were dressed in T-shirts and shorts, were on their way to Allacapan town proper for a medical examination when their Isuzu Elf van struck a land mine placed in the middle of the road in the boundary of Barangay Cataran and Barangay (village) Centro West.
Seven other policemen were wounded when they engaged the rebels in a gunfight.
“The DBC [Danilo Ben Command] sends its apologies to the families who lost their loved ones in the engagement,” said the NPA statement.
Unarmed
“We are saddened by the deaths, but this is part of our conflict, and your slain relatives were instruments of the current [Aquino] administration,” Apolinario said in the statement written in Filipino.
“The military troops, the NPA rebels and the civilians caught in the crossfire are victims of the greed and violence perpetrated by the state, which is lorded over by the landed, the bourgeoisie and their foreign capitalist masters,” he said.
Rebel demand
He said the NPA had acted on behalf of villagers who had asked for the withdrawal of the SAF unit.
The statement also said the rebels took away 15 rifles and pistols from the ambush site.
Chief Supt. Rodrigo de Gracia, Cagayan Valley police director, said the attack proved that the community needed to be protected from communist rebels operating in the region.
Peace no more
Malacañang had expressed outrage over the attack on unarmed policemen and vowed to bring to justice the guerrillas responsible for it.
The attack highlights the dimming prospects for peace talks between communist guerrillas and the government, which are stalled as a result of government refusal to release detained guerrilla leaders from prison where they are often kept on charges of illegal possession of firearms, which is a nonbailable crime.
The government has blamed the guerrillas for derailing the talks, but the guerrillas said it is the government that has not been sincere. Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon