2 killed, 5 wounded in Negros Occidental clash

BACOLOD CITY – Two policemen were killed and five were wounded in an ambush staged by suspected communist rebels in Barangay  Caningay, Candoni town in Negros Occidental on Thursday night.

The fatalities were identified as PO3 Joe Harry Peralta and PO1 Henry Vell Pacheco.

Pacheco was a rescue volunteer before he became a policeman.

His father is former Association of Barangay Captains president Wilfredo Pacheco of Candoni, said Nicholas Gustilo Lachica II, Candoni Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management officer.

Five persons were also wounded in the firefight, including two police identified as PO1 Jay Agravante Arroyo and PO1 Modesto Derecho Bina.

Lachica said three others were Julius Miravalles, Rey Duales and a third person who was yet to be identified.

Two policemen – SPO4 Boyd Mate and PO1 Charlemagne Caballero –were unharmed.

Six policemen from the Candoni police station went to Barangay Caningay to respond to a hacking incident past 9 p.m. on Thursday.

They picked up the person wounded in the fight and headed back to the police station.

They were approaching the Panaculan Creek bridge,  about 2 kilometers  from the Municipal Hall, when they saw a toppled banana tree in the middle of the highway and a burst of gunfire. CDG

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