NPA finally apologizes for Negros Occ ambush

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  â€” A week after the killing eight civilians and a policeman in a bloody ambush in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, the New People’s Army finally owned up to the crime and issued a statement of apology Friday.

In a tape-recorded statement furnished the media Friday, Ka JB Regalado, spokesman of the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command, said they are sorry for what had happened and admitted some lapses on their part in the incident that resulted to the deaths of a policeman, three members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT), two tanods and three civilians in Brgy. Puso last Jan. 27.

Regalado however denied the NPA planned to stage the deadly attack, insisting that they only wanted to conduct a checkpoint in the area with the purpose of stopping the truck was to disarm the policemen and BPAT members of their high-powered weapons. He claimed the NPA fired a warning shot to stop the truck but the policemen on the vehicle opened fire at the rebels, triggering the shootout.

The fatalities were PO1 Richard Canja, believed to be the real target of the ambushers; Jonathan Mateo, Ulysses Tamayor and Ramil Compleza—members of the BPAT in Cabacungan; tanods Mario Ricablanca and Timoteo Esplegera; driver Enrique “Ricky” Dingcong; and civilians Lito Lucban and Virginia Ordoñez. The NPA specifically apologized to the families of Dingcong and Ordoñez.

The military said five of the victims—Compleza, Lucban, Ordoñez, Esplegera and Dingcong—were buried in La Castellana last Friday.

The massacre also injured two policemen and 10 civilians, but the NPA statement also refuted the testimonies of the survivors that those who died were shot at close range.

Senior Supt. Celestino Guara Jr., acting Negros Occidental Police director, called Regalado’s statement “lies,” saying that, based on medical examination, the fatalities suffered bullet wounds in the head, while the face of the truck driver was blasted beyond recognition.

It was impossible for the police officers to open fire first because their guns were still holstered even after the ambush. “Lies. Who can fire first—the firearms held in ambush position or the firearms which are still in the holster?” Guara asked.

The NPA said it regretted that the civilians became collateral damage to what could have been a simple and quick process of disarming the BPAT members and the policemen. It declared that it will assist the families of the civilian victims and take disciplinary action against its military unit responsible for the incident and its head under the principle of command responsibility, Regalado said.

While the NPA has personally gotten in touch with the families of the victims and extend its condolences, Regalado said the rebel group admitted having violated the 1998 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law but assured they will conduct their own investigation on what happened.

The Commission on Human Rights has been conducting a parallel investigation on the ambush, to ascertain incidence of human rights violation on what the military and the police described as “massacre of civilians.”

Guara said murder and attempted murder charges were readied for filing this week against at least 20 NPA members belonging to “Larangan Guerilla 1.” He said the ambush may have been a “test mission” for newly recruited members of the NPA. Based on accounts of survivors and residents in the area, some of the assailants were young men.

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the ambushers may be high on drugs and full of hatred to commit such act that defies logical reasoning,” while Guara agreed because “no person in his right mind could do such irrational and dastardly act.”   (FREEMAN)