CATBALOGAN, Samar –
A police officer was killed after a group of armed men believed to be
members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) ambushed a police car
in Brgy. San Isidro, Sta. Rita town, some 70 kilometers south from
Samar’s capital, Thursday.
The car was carrying a
team of policemen, led by Calbayog City Police Chief Supt. Isaias
Tonog, who were on their way to
Tacloban
City
early morning Thursday when the car they were riding was hit landmines
in the vicinity of Brgy. San Isidro at around 9:30 a.m.
Supt. Tonog, in an
interview, said the armed men, who were lying in an ambush position,
sprayed them with bullets right after the car hit the ground following
the blast. That caused him and his men to jump off the car to take
cover, he added.
The police identified
the fatality as PO1 Bernagier Ben-Wadja, a PNP personnel detailed at
the Samar Provincial Police Office (SPPO), who sustained gunshot
wounds from a 60 cal. Machinegun used by the rebels.
The six other police
escorts, however, suffered only minor injuries resulting from the
ambush but a civilian fish vendor, who parked his motorcycle just a
few meters away from where the bombs were planted to answer the call
of nature, was seriously injured.
The Army’s 62nd
Infantry Battalion based in Calbiga town immediately dispatched a
platoon of army soldiers to provide reinforcements but the communist
rebels have already withdrawn from the site when they arrived.
Col. Jonathan G.
Ponce, Commanding Officer of the 62nd IB, who was in Basey for the "Baktas
Kabubuwason" Project, immediately proceeded to the ambush site to led
his men in clearing the area. The army recovered from the site two
landmines that the rebels failed to detonate.
Military authorities
here condemned the act as barbaric and is in direct violation of the
Geneva Convention for using explosives which can indiscriminately harm
civilian targets.
