BACOLOD City – Mayor Magdaleno Peña of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental ordered security tagging and random identification in the municipality to prevent “acts of terrorism.”
Peña signed Executive Order No. 17 on April 13. A copy of the order was furnished to Panay News.
The move was spurred by the April 9 shooting in Barangay Bulad, Isabela, Negros Occidental, which claimed the lives of 50-year-old retired soldier Jose Joerito Amable, 70-year-old retired police officer Alejandro Borres and 29-year-old Barangay Peace Action Team member Federico Bitgue.
The Apolinario Gatmaitan Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) admitted to killing Borres and Amable, who it claimed were “think tanks” behind Peña’s “counter-revolutionary and anti-people campaign.”
The group said the campaign “terrorizes the ordinary townsfolk of Moises Padilla and its neighboring areas.”
But the NPA denied responsibility over Bitgue’s death and the injuries that the 10-year-old Timothy Arron Archivar and the 34-year-old teacher Alquin Genterola Jr. sustained.
Isabela police earlier said Bitgue, Archivar and Genterola were hit by stray bullets.
Under the local order, all ambulant vendors, transient peddlers, and money lenders or collectors in Moises Padilla must secure a security tag identification card from the municipal police station.
Motorcycle owners in the town must also submit their names, plate numbers and vehicle model to the police.
Riding in tandem in the town is prohibited, too, expect if the back-rider is female, the order stated.
Motorcycle-riding individuals must also take off their helmets upon entering the town proper while maintaining a speed limit of 20 kilometers per hour, it added.
The order also directed the municipal police to strictly guard the town from the entry to exit points./PN
