La Castellana ambush-massacre: Military slams Jalandoni for defending NPA’s act

CEBU, Philippines -A top military official on Sunday blasted National Democratic Front chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni for defending the New People’s Army rebels who ambushed and killed a policeman and eight civilians in La Castellana town, Negros Occidental on Jan. 27.

“We are challenging Jalandoni to come out of his comfort zone in the Netherlands and go straight to La Castellana to see for himself what really transpired last January 27,” said Maj. Gen. Jose Mabanta, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Mabanta made the remark after Jalandoni said, in a statement dated Feb. 7 from Amsterdam, that the NPA-staged ambush was “legitimate” and it was directed at a “legitimate target”—the policemen and members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team whom he called “paramilitaries.”

Jalandoni claimed that the civilians killed were really policemen and village watchmen whose truck did not stop at the NPA checkpoint, and who were the first to fire in the shootout. The Philippine government’s “civil and military officials are lying for claiming that even the paramilitaries are civilians,” he said adding that the police and the BPATs “are culpable for commandeering the driver and truck and making the civilians their hostages.”

Jalandoni also claimed that the rebels did not deliberately shoot the fatalities in the head after they were wounded or killed, saying this allegation is a “blatant lie of the military officials for psywar effect.”

He further stated that President Benigno Aquino III and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) “are destroying the peace negotiations for making false charges of war crimes [against the NPA] and for acting like robots of the fascist elements in the military and police.”

Major Ray Tiongson, Mabanta’s spokesman, said some of the civilians were shot in the head after having been initially disabled.

“Jalandoni’s warning that charges of war crimes against the NPA led by Magno Flores could jeopardize the ongoing peace negotiation is a bluff. The CPP-NPA-NDFP leadership must surrender their members and those who ordered the ambush must be made accountable. The government will pursue the case and see to it that the rule of law must be applied to all,” said Tiongson.

Nine people, including PO1 Richard Canja, were killed while 12 others were wounded in the Jan. 27 incident at Barangay Puso in La Castellana.

It was before dawn and the victims were returning from a security detail in a town fiesta when about 30 heavily armed gunmen opened fire on them, Chief Inspector Rico Santotome Jr., spokesman of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, said in a previous report.

The NPA has claimed responsibility for the massacre, while Puso Brgy. Chairman Florencio Nellis denied any prior knowledge of the ambush, contrary to allegations that some barangay officials and civilians knew beforehand of the NPA plans and even allegedly helped the rebels.

Colonel Oscar Lactao, commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, earlier said that civilians who aided the rebels in the ambush will be criminally liable. with reports from Amanda Fernandez of GMA News (FREEMAN)