BONTOC, Mountain Province – Another policeman
was wounded when New People’s Army guerrillas ambushed a police patrol here
Wednesday afternoon in addition to two killed and two other wounded in another
clash March 29 at border of adjacent
Sagada town wherein two cops were killed while two others were wounded.
Senior
Supt. Oliver Emodias, provincial police director, said PO1 Emmanuel Dagsan, hurt
in Wednesday’s clash, is now being treated at Bontoc General Hospital.
The latest
encounter happened in Sitio Bantonil, Barangay Dalican, Bontoc, adjacent to
border of Barangay Aguid, Sagada where earlier clash happened.
This, as Sagada
officials said clashes between government forces and NPA rebels has driven away
tourists of the rustic town even as police and military soldiers are now
scouring mountains here in search of NPA guerillas who killed the two lawmen
and wounded two others in two rebel camps in Dalican.
Sources said NPA
rebels were marking their 45th anniversary on March 29 when the
firefight happened around 3:30 p.m.
Supt. Davy Limmong,
regional police information chief said around that time, “joint elements of the
RPSB, Mountain Province Provincial Public Safety Battalion and the army’s 54th
Infantry Battalion were conducting tactical operation at the vicinity of
Bandong Hill in Dalican where they found two NPA camps when fired upon by
undetermined number of armed groups allegedly NPA members.”
Limmong identified the
slain cops as Police Officers 1 Jefferson Sari of the RPSB and Marcelo A.
Kilasen of MPPSC. (An NPA statement meanwhile said PO1 Jefferson Sari’s family
name was Susangi.)
Wounded were Romeo
Fakat Jr. of PPSC and Benito Magan of
RPSB, both PO1 who were taken to the Bontoc General Hospital for treatment.
According to Limmong,
right after the firefight, police from provincial headquarters, PPSC and Sagada
coordinated with residents of Dalican and Aguid so the dead and wounded cops
could be taken out of the area.
This, while additional
troops were reportedly alerted for deployment to the area.
“The incident was a
result of our tactical operation in the area that started since March 28 which
resulted to our personnel overrunning the two NPA camps,” Limmong said.
This, as Magno Udyaw,
spokesperson of the NPA’s Leonardo Pacsi Command said LPC-NPA “Government
troops started combat operations evening of March 23 in the boundary of Besao
and Sagada. Their columns manuevered towards Bandong Hill where they were
fiercely met by the NPA fighters in a surprise attack at around 3:30 pm of
March 29.” .
“What happened to the
four casualties should be a lesson to all Igorot kakailians not to allow
themselves to be used by the ruling class to oppress their own kin in exchange
for meager amount and at the cost of allowing the plunder of our land and
natural resources.”
He also urged local government
executives “to dissuade the local police force under their command from joining
counter- insurgency intelligence and combat operations.”
Meanwhile, Robert
Pangod, executive assistant to Sagada town Mayor Eduardo Latawan, said the two
rebel camps were reportedly attacked by policemen aided by the military but NPA
guerillas and reportedly some supporters fired back.
The location of the
gunfight was reportedly named after Lt. Jose Bandong Jr., who died in the area
on April 10, 1992 while leading government troopers in a gunfight with
communist rebels.
The area is within the
territorial jurisdiction of Bontoc, Mt. Province’s capital town and not Sagada,
Pangod said, adding the location of the June 29 firefight was a
three-hour walk from Sagadapoblacion.
He said Sagada is
trying its best to maintain the town as a “peace zone”, a declaration since
1987, where both the military and the NPA are reportedly barred.
In September last
year, policemen aided by Philippine Army troopers also allegedly overran a huge
rebel camp in remote barangay Aguid, also in Sagada.
The camp which was
initially spotted by deep reconnaissance policemen was reportedly well-equipped
and was used by the rebels as their training ground for staging a massive
attack against government forces deployed in the province for peacekeeping
duties.
During the initial
assault, two policemen --- Police Officers 1 Primo Marcelo and Romel Sagot --
were wounded when they were met with heavy gunfire by communist rebels.
"Despite the
realities, we still make it a point to talk to both parties (NPA and
military and police) not to fight within Sagada," Pangod said, adding, two
visitors have cancelled their visit to the idyllic and laid-back mountain
enclave.
Such fighting is bad
for the tourism business here, he said,anticipating the heavy influx of
tourists with the Lent and the summer vacation season.
Before Sagada was
declared a peace zone, frequent skirmishes between government forces and NPA
rebels left some civilians dead or traumatized and made them fear to till their
fields.
Some army soldiers,
also in the late 80s, killed two youths right at the town center while an
encounter between the NPA and military happenedd right at the campus of the
Sagada Central School in the Poblacion where troops encamped.
In June last year,
police and the military launched an assault following the NPA ambush of around
100 police trainees in Tadian town that left one dead and almost a dozen others
wounded.
The Army’s 54th
Infantry Battalion used to encamp in Sagada but pulled out early this year
after the municipal council and elders wanted the peace zone revived. – With reports from Kimberlie Quitasol and Gina Dizon
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