Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde on Monday ordered the deployment of more than 300 Special Action Force troops to Negros Island to help the police there following the spate of killings in Negros Oriental.
“I have ordered the deployment of more than 300 SAF troops to Negros Island to augment local police units in anti-criminality and internal security operations against elements and dissident terrorist groups operating in the provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental,”Albayalde told reporters in Camp Crame.
“The regional director [Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas] told us that their pursuit operations together with the AFP are continuing and that they are looking into all these killings.”
Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has called on the authorities to get the killers of lawyer Anthony Trinidad who was murdered in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, on July 23.
In a statement, IBP national president Domingo Egon Cayosa said law enforcement agencies should redouble their efforts arrest the killers of Trinidad, a “good and selfless lawyer” who chose to forgo a lucrative career in Manila and Dumaguete City to settle in his hometown of Guihulngan.
“Filipino lawyers and our country demand that the law enforcement, investigating and prosecuting agencies of government do their job well and with dispatch, lest everyone lose trust and hope in our justice system and government,” the IBP said.
Albayalde said President Rodrigo Duterte never mentioned putting Negros Oriental under martial law amid the recent spate of killings there.
He said President Duterte only ordered security officials to end the insurgency in the area as the communist rebels were responsible for the series of killings.
The killings occurred after four intelligence operatives of the police were tortured and killed in Barangay Mabato in Ayungon town on July 18.
From July 23 to July 28, a total of 13 people were killed, including a lawyer tagged as sympathetic to the NPA in Guihulngan City, a former mayor of Ayungon town, an incumbent councilor of Canlaon City, a barangay captain in Canlaon City, a school principal and his sister and a barangay captain also in Guihulngan City.
“There is also that possibility that the four police officers were tortured and summarily executed and there is also a scheme on the part of the CPP-NPA where they sacrifice their own and then blame government forces for alleged human rights violations. They are also pointing to government forces for these killings,” Albayalde said.
In some of the killings, the gunmen would barge into the house of their target and would leave spray-painted graffiti indicating the NPA was claiming responsibility.
“This is part of their propaganda. They will execute their own and blame the government for it,” Albayalde said. With Rey E. Requejo
