THREE POLICEMEN were wounded from an improvised explosive device (IED) set up by members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Sibalom, Antique on Tuesday morning, Nov. 21. Police Officer 3 Gabby Orantes of the Sibalom Police Station was hit on the stomach with shrapnels, while PO3s Michael Alejo and Salvador Cordero were injured on their arms as they took cover and returned fire. According to reports, members of the Sibalom Police Station, led by SPO4 Ricky Ensina, were on board two vehicles on their way to a police operation when they were ambushed along the highway at Barangay Bontol around 9:25 a.m. Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne R. Binag, director of the Police Regional Office-6, said that before the ambush, policemen all over Western Visayas were already instructed to remain on high alert for any attacks by the NPA. “That’s why, we are on the offensives. It’s just that the NPAs are into the use of IED,” he said. The Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division had earlier condemned the use of IEDs, noting that “it clearly shows that the CPP-NPA terrorists violates the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, to which the Government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, including the CPP-NPA, are signatories to ban the use of landmines.” On the same day before the ambush on the police, an undetermined number of NPAs also fired shots at a military detachment at Barangay Bulalacao, also in Sibalom, located about three kilometers from Bontol village. The military said no one was wounded on the government side. Brigadier General Pio Q. Diñoso, 301st Infantry Brigade commander, said the incident was a clear case of harassment by a desperate rebel group. It was not a retaliatory attack but a diversionary move, he said. “We have been conducting relentless operations in the provinces of Iloilo and Capiz. It was an attempt to divert the government troops’ focus,” he said. — The Freeman

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