Military says no rift with police seen after Samar jungle patrol incident

THE MILITARY’S Central Command Spokesperson Colonel Medel M. Aguilar yesterday said the 27 soldiers involved in the accidental shooting of police officers in Samar have been placed under camp restriction and disarmed. Mr. Aguilar, in an interview with the media, also said the incident is not foreseen to create a rift between the military and the police, and that it will be taken as an opportunity to improve operations. Troops tracking communist guerrillas have mistakenly killed six policemen and wounded nine other officers who were also on jungle patrol last Monday. The army said it had launched an investigation into the incident, while the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of National Defense will also conduct a probe. “It was a vegetated, jungle area and you could not see through the (men’s) positions,” Captain Francis R. Agno, spokesman for the army division involved in the 30-minute firefight, told AFP. The police said their colleagues were also on patrol in the area near the town of Santa Rita, which neighbors Villareal town, about 550 kilometers southeast of Manila. — The Freeman and AFP