Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — An ambush by suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) left two policemen dead and four others injured in Candoni, Negros Occidental on Thursday evening (February 18).
Senior Insp. Varie Villanobos, the town chief of police, said around 30 suspected communist rebels attacked the policemen who were on their way back to the station after responding to a stabbing incident in Caningay.
Villanobos said the policemen saw a toppled banana trunk blocking the highway while approaching the Panaculan creek bridge, about 2 kilometers from the municipal hall.
Sensing it was an ambush, team leader SPO2 Boyd Mate swerved the vehicle but the assailants showered them with bullets.
Those killed were PO3 Joe Peralta and PO1 Henry Vell Pacheco.
Injured were PO1 Jay Agravante Arroyo, PO1 Modesto Derecho Viña, and two civilians identified as Julius Miravalles and Rey Duales.
Meanwhile, Mate and PO1 Charlemagne Caballero were not wounded.
Col. Francisco Delfin, commander of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade called the incident an act of of terrorists.
Local government officials also condemned the attacked and had asked the communist guerrillas for a reason for staging the attack.
Bacolod City-based correspondent Shiela Gelera contributed to this report.
