5 cops killed, 2 hurt in Camarines Norte clash —Eleazar

Five police officers were killed while two others were injured on Friday in an ambush by alleged communist guerrillas in Labo, Camarines Norte, the Philippine National Police said Saturday.

According to PNP-OIC Police Lieutenant General Eleazar, a platoon was deployed to a vicinity of a road construction project in Labo to ease the transportation of local farmers and residents after the construction company received a demand letter.

The PNP said that the letter, which came from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front, demanded the company to pay betwee 3 to 5 percent of the cost of the Labo-Tagkawayan road project so they will not be harassed during its construction.

It said that the communist guerrillas threatened to burn the company’s equipment if their demands are not met.

While securing the road project, seven members of the platoon were ambushed at around 9:45 a.m. in Purok 6 of Barangay Dumagmang.

“To the families of our heroes, I feel your pain and anger over this incident and the most that we could do is to seek justice for them,” Eleazar said in a statement.

“Rest assured that we will always be there to provide all the assistance that you deserve,” he added.

Eleazar, acting PNP chief while top cop Debold Sinas is recuperating from COVID-19, ordered the regional directors of the PRO4A and the PRO5 to mobilize their forces and hit back on all NPA members operating in their areas.

He also ordered an investigation to identify those who could have helped the NPAs to conduct their ambuscade and bring them to court, saying that such ambushes do not usually succeed without help from supporters.

Eleazar said the CPP-NPA-NDF has been given numerous opportunities to refrain from attacking government forces.

“Yet over the years, they repeatedly turned down peace negotiations and instead resort to cowardly attacks even in the time of the pandemic,” he said.

“Clearly, these people do not understand the language of peace so will deal with them in manner that they fully understand our message that we shall never tolerate this kind of terrorism activity,” he added. —LBG, GMA News