By Mary Judaline Partlow/PNA
DUMAGUETE CITY – The provincial director of Negros Oriental police is appealing to the residents of Guihulngan to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the fight against criminality in that northern city.
Sr. Supt. Raul Tacaca on Tuesday afternoon admitted that the police and the military couldn’t fully keep watch over the entire city, considering that the area is so huge and also shares borders with other areas in Negros Occidental.
“Hindi naman namin mababantayan ang lahat dahil sa laki ng area, tapos yung mga pangyayari, minsan nasa boundary na sa kabila (we cannot guard everyone because of the large area and some of the incidents take place in the boundary),” said Tacaca, referring to the latest shooting incident involving a member of the Citizens Armed Geographical Unit (CAFGU) of the Philippine Army.
Shooting incidents continue unabated in Guihulngan, a city about 116 kilometers north of this capital, and many are attributed either to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) or the illegal drugs trade.
Last Sunday, three armed men believed to be NPA members shot dead a CAFGU member in the mountainous Barangay Linantuyan in Guihulngan City, about 33 kilometers from the city proper.
Joseph Silvano Gabia, 39, married, assigned to the CAA detachment in Linantuyan, died of multiple gunshot wounds while his companion, Jano Pasigna Gorpio, 23, a resident of Sitio Mandi-e in Barangay Magsaysay, Guihulngan, was slightly hit and sustained physical injuries.
According to Tacaca, the suspects are believed to be members of the NPA’s hit squad, the Special Partisan Unit or Sparu.
“Kaya kami nanghihingi ng tulong sa mga tao kung meron mang information na pwede nilang ibigay sa amin (that is why we are asking the people to help provide us with information),” he said.
Tacaca described the atrocities of the NPA members in Negros Oriental as a “show of force” but in truth “kokonti na lang sila sa area natin, yung iba ay nanggaling sa ibang lugar, sa Occidental o tumatawid at dito na sila nag o-operate (there are only a few them here but some are from other places like Occidental and they just cross boundaries and they now operate)”.
According to him, the NPA has its mass base in Guihulngan City and other areas in the province’s first district that is why the atrocities are perpetrated there.
“Iyan ang tinututukan natin sa mga tao doon na huwag ng suportahan ang NPA, suportahan niyo ang PNP at saka AFP (that is what we are focusing on right now, to convince the people to support the PNP and the AFP instead of supporting the NPA),” he stressed.
