DAVAO CITY—Scene-of-the-crime investigators said three of the four policemen who were killed last week in Bansalan, Davao del Sur were executed and not ambushed as the New People’s Army claimed.
One of the three police was kneeling when he was shot, indicating that they pleaded for their lives before they were shot at close range with M16 and M14 rifles, the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) report said.
Other signs that they were shot at close range were the empty shells near the victims’ bodies and power burns on their wounds.
The report added that PO1 Joe Narvaza was killed in the initial salvo of fire while PO1 Saro Mangutara was dragged from the back portion of the mobile patrol car where he was seated to the right side of the front seat where his body was found along with PO1 Rolly Benelayo and PO3 Jayden May Rabor.
Paraffin tests showed the policemen did not fire their guns.
Near the scene of the crime, police found an unexploded bomb.
The lone survivor, PO3 Allen Arnado, said when he saw their windshield shattered by a gunshot, he immediately jumped off the vehicle and hid himself 50 meters away.
“After I jumped off the car, I don’t have any idea what happened to them. I crawled to save my life, all I can hear was gunshots,” Arnado said.
Police Regional Office 11 Director Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan said Arnado’s statement and the SOCO report confirm that the cops were executed.
“This only shows how barbaric the actions of the rebels. They even dragged PO1 Mangutara who was seated at the back side of the car,” Gaerlan said.
He said that they already have some of the rebels’ names and will be filing murder charges against them soon.
The Commission of Human Rights here also condemned the incident and vowed to continue working with the authorities.
The NPA said Wednesday there would be more attacks against the military and police amid its continued offensive against the communist rebels.
In a statement, Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, NPA spokesman, said that while the NPA has yet to receive instructions from the Communist Party of the Philippines leadership based in Utretch for a possible ceasefire, the NPA rebels will continue to engage with security forces over President Rodrigo Duterte’s March 9 order to “flatten the hills” in efforts to crush communist rebels.
“Until then, the NPA is ready to confront and counter the offensives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] in order to defend the people, especially the peasant masses and minority groups, from the abuses being perpetrated by the AFP,” Madlos said.
The armed group condemned the aerial bombings in NPA-controlled areas and the alleged killing of at least 15 peasants in different parts of the country.
“As such, it is the obligation of the NPA to counter the AFP’s frenzied war against the people,” Madlos said.
The killing of the four police officers in Bansalan prompted President Duterte to order the military and police to use all their assets in the war against communist rebels.
Despite an announcement that peace talks have been revived, attacks continued. This week, the rebels burned a bus in Makilala, North Cotabato, and wounded five policemen in an ambush in Abra.
The NPA called on Duterte “to restrain the AFP and command it to stop its acts of state terrorism against the people in order to prepare the ground for a meaningful ceasefire in line with the continuation of peace talks.”
CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison meanwhile, welcomed Duterte’s decision to again open the formal negotiations with the rebels.
Sison, the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front, said that it will be “in the people’s interest for the government and the rebels to forge a peace agreement. With John Paolo Bencito
