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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Monday, June 19, 2017
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ILOILO City – New People’s Army (NPA) rebels stormed the police station of Maasin, Iloilo yesterday and immobilized nine helpless police officers.
The daring, broad daylight incursion was swift. Within 15 minutes beginning around 10:30 a.m., the rebels shanghaied eight M16 rifles, four Glock .9mm pistols, five handheld radios and their base, two laptops, P29,000 cash, and jewelry.
The rebels did not harm the nine police officers but handcuffed them. They also used the police station’s patrol car to flee.
Before leaving the police station, the rebels – numbering between 40 to 50 – distributed statements to residents explaining the raid.
Maasin is some 25 kilometers from Iloilo City. The rebels were long gone when troops from the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) reached the police station together with Senior Superintendent Christopher Tambungan, deputy regional director for operations.
Witnesses said the rebels fled toward the town of Alimodian.
Minutes after the raid, Ka Julio Montana, spokesperson of the NPA-Panay (Coronacion Chiva “Waling-Waling” Command) issued a statement praising the NPA-Napoleon Tumagtang Command for the successful operation.
Not a gun a fired, noted Montana.
Early this month, the Iloilo Police Provincial Office warned police stations in Maasin, San Joaquin, Guimbal, Miag-ao, Tubungan, Igbaras, Alimodian, Leon, Calinog, Bingawan, Badiangan, San Enrique, Passi City, San Rafael, and Lemery that they were targets of NPA raids.
The RPSB was ordered to take over the Maasin police station after the NPA raid. Chief Superintendent Jose Hawthorne Binag, Western Visayas police director, sacked all of Maasin’s police force – 23 police officers including the nine who were on duty yesterday – and the police station chief, Senior Inspector Ray Cordero.
Binag also tasked PRO-6’s Regional Investigation Group to conduct a probe.
Cordero was not around during the raid.
NPA’S REASONS
Ka Julio Montana enumerated several reasons for the raid. He accused Maasin policemen of extortion, with poor vendors as their primary victims.
Montana also claimed the Maasin police tolerated the proliferation of illegal drugs and illegal gambling in the town.
The raid was NPA-Panay’s answer, too, to Oplan Kapayapaan all-out war campaign of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police against the revolutionary movement, Montana added.
Oplan Kapayapaan has resulted to rampant human rights violations such as illegal arrests, bombings of communities, forced evacuation of villagers, and killings of suspected rebels, among others, said Montana.
HOW IT HAPPENED
From what the PRO-6 so far gathered, the rebels, armed with long firearms, arrived in a truck (a Canter) and quickly surrounded the Maasin police station.
One of those who witnessed what happened was Vice Mayor Francis Amboy. He quickly rushed to the area after receiving information about the rebels’ presence.
According Amboy, the rebels told him to back off.
“They told me to move away and that they won’t harm civilians. They also said they were only targeting the police station and municipal hall,” said Amboy.
Some of the rebels were women and two were seen entering the police station.
The two women rebels pretending to be civilians asked the police to have something recorded in the police blotter, according to initial information from the Maasin police. Then all of a sudden more rebels barged into the police station through the back door and handcuffed the nine stunned police officers on duty.
“They were disarmed, handcuffed then made to lie on the floor,” said Binag in a press conference hours after the raid. “Ang dami nila. Pinaligiran nila ang police station.”
One woman witness said the rebels used a megaphone to warn people not to go near the Maasin police station.
She was at a nearby carinderia and saw what was happening, she said. Fearing for her safety, however, she asked not to be named.
“Maguwa pa ko tani pero nakita ko mga armado. May tabon ila guya kag nagadinalagan pakadto sa police station,” she said.
After 15 minutes of ransacking the police station, the rebels left.
The Maasin police patrol car was recovered in Barangay Cagay, Alimodian while the rebels abandoned their truck in Barangay Ingwan also in Alimodian.
Binag ordered all of Maasin’s police force to report to the PRO-6 while the investigation was going on.
Tambungan, on the other hand, did not hide his disappointment at the Maasin police.
“Hindi nila ini-internalize ang lahat na sinabi ko so ayan, nasampolan na,” he said.
Tambungan had been inspecting police stations across the region since last month.
“I told them not to leave their stations unmanned because we are on full alert status. We have to be ready always,” he stressed.
This was not the first time rebels raided a police station in Iloilo province. In June 2004 over 60 rebels stormed the police station of Tubungan and its town hall. Eight policemen and about 50 municipal employees were held hostage.
The attack caught Tubungan policemen by surprise. The rebels took their guns and before leaving, they left two red flags at the front door of the town hall signifying their successful attack./PN
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