Personnel of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) have been urged anew to exercise more caution when responding to calls for assistance in risky areas.
Col. Romeo Baleros, police provincial director, said he issued a memorandum to the mobile force companies and police stations following the incident in Ayungon, Negros Oriental, which claimed the lives of four policemen.
“We sent a memo telling them to be extra cautious in responding to calls for police assistance,” he said in a press briefing yesterday.
On July 18, Cpl. Relebert Beronio, Pat. Raffy Callao, Pat. Roel Cabellon, and Pat. Marquino de Leon of the 704th Mobile Force Company of the 7th Regional Mobile Force Battalion were seized and summarily executed by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Sitio Yamot, Barangay Mabato.
The four were on their way to the detachment at Sitio Nabinca when they were abducted and shot several times.
Baleros earlier condemned what he called barbaric and inhumane acts of the communist-terrorist group, and expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of their fallen comrades.
He said he reminded policemen in Negros Occidental to conduct a risk assessment of the area, which has presence of armed groups and criminals, before proceeding to respond.
“We want to prevent a duplication of the gruesome incident (in Ayungon),” the provincial police chief said.
Baleros further said he reminded his men to be alert in defending the police stations.
“Deploy personnel in full battle gear and arrest suspicious persons to prevent them from going close to the police station,” he added.
LOAD SCAM.
Meanwhile, Baleros also warned Negrenses to be aware of posers who pretended to be him and ask for cellular phone loads.
He said yesterday that two persons have already been victimized, including a project contractor and a government employee. Each of them gave the suspect P5,000 worth of load cards, he added.
“I’m appealing to the public, beware of the modus of this syndicated group or person,” Baleros said.* (Nanette Guadalquiver)
SUICIDE.
Meanwhile, the barangay chairman of Mabato in Ayungon, Negros Oriental, where four policemen were allegedly tortured and killed by suspected Communist New People’s Army rebels last week, died yesterday after reportedly committing suicide.
Sketchy details said Sunny Arcala Caldera, 51, married, the village chief and resident of said barangay, passed away at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Silliman University Medical Center here, a day after he was rushed after allegedly taking a poisonous chemical.
Ayungon Mayor Erwin Agustino confirmed the death of Caldera but no other details were made available at press time.
Capt. Romel Luga, police chief of Ayungon, on Monday night said a container of Karate Pesticide was recovered at the place where Caldera was temporarily staying at the town proper.
According to him, the barangay chairman was present during a meeting called for by Agustino with municipal and barangay officials, as well as the police, just hours after the deaths of the four policemen.
The meeting was aimed at coming up with resolutions and other measures to address the apparent insurgency threat in the town.
During the meeting, Caldera appeared to be “pressured” even though he was very cooperative with the authorities on the investigation regarding the killing of Corporal Relebert Beronio, Patrolman Raffy Callao, Patrolman Ruel Cabellon, and Patrolman Marquino de Leon of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 7 (RMFB7) in Sitio Ilaya Yamot, by suspected communist rebels.
But before the meeting was over, Caldera was observed to have left ahead, Luga said.
Some people went looking for him and found him around 3 p.m., lying on the floor of the house where he was staying at and already vomiting.
Mayor Agustino, in an interview recently, believes the alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels that are in his town were just “passing through” as these groups are usually mobile and operate across the boundaries of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental.
He said Ayungon was “peaceful” and did not have problems related to the NPA but their peace was disturbed by the murder of the four cops.
Agustino hoped that reports of an alleged expansion of an NPA guerilla base in the so-called BATMANAY (Bindoy, Ayungon, Tayasan, Manjuyod, and Mabinay) area is not true as there will definitely be consequences of intensified anti-insurgency operations.* (Mary Judaline Partlow, PNA via NDB)
