Negros ambush victims’ kin reject NPA compensation

MANILA, Philippines - The families of victims in the Jan. 27 ambush in La Castellana, Negros Occidental have turned down the compensation offered by communist rebels and continue to demand justice for their kin, the military said yesterday.

Capt. Leo Cunanan, spokesman of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade, said the New People’s Army (NPA) has issued a statement expressing its willingness to pay damages to the families of civilians killed in the ambush.

Cunanan said the NPA issued the statement through a certain JB Regalado, who he said is a spokesman of the group.

“A grieving housewife expressed disappointment on the NPA’s statement, saying she could not accept any money as payment for the death of her husband (who was) a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team,” he said.

Cunanan also quoted the wife of Enrique Dingcong, driver of the truck waylaid by the rebels, as saying that the P9,000 cash in her husband’s wallet was missing.

The military scored the NPA for supposedly offering compensation to the victim’s kin.

“It is not about money we are talking about here, it is about the loss of a loved one, of the victims’ right to live, and it is about justice,” said Col. Oscar Lactao, commander of the Army’s 303rd IB.

“If they (NPA) just pay damages to the victims’ families, will this justify that they can kill people unarmed and just compensate them with money?” he added.

Lactao said security forces in Negros are working with local governments and other stakeholders to help the victims’ families get justice.

Nine people were killed and nine others were wounded in the NPA attack.

The victims, according to police reports, were traversing Barangay Puso in La Castellana town onboard a Fuzo Center truck when they were waylaid.