Police readying charges vs NPA rebels in Isabela ambush

ILAGAN CITY, Philippines – Police are readying multiple murder and frustrated murder charges against New People’s Army (NPA) rebels for the death of seven soldiers and wounding of nine others during an ambush in Barangay Mabbayad, Echague, Isabela last Sunday.

Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag, Isabela police director, said among those to be charged are a certain Ka MJ, spokesman of the NPA’s Benito Tesorio Command, which owned up to the ambush, and Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison.

Mabanag told The STAR they are also looking for evidence to link officials of the Mabuwaya Foundation, a crocodile conservation foundation based in the Sierra Madre mountain range. The group allegedly harbored foreigners seen with the guerrillas before the ambush.

Marites Gatan-Balabas, deputy director of the Mabuwaya Foundation, however, said they have nothing to do with the foreigners seen with insurgents.

She said they have foreigners doing crocodile research but not in the area where the encounter occurred.

The Isabela-based 5th Infantry Division (ID) confirmed the presence of three female foreigners along with some 30 NPA guerrillas, who were involved in the five-hour clash with soldiers.

“There are photographs showing them with the lawless armed group,” said Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of the 5th ID’s civilian-military operations battalion.

Magundayao said details about the foreigners’ identity, group and activities remain unavailable. “We are still investigating why they were there,” he said.

“We will also be filing charges against (these foreigners) if they are proven to have participated in the firefight,” he added.

– Charlie Lagasca, Raymund Catindig, Alexis Romero