PNP on heightened alert vs NPA
BUTUAN CITY – The regional command of Northeastern Mindanao Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13) is on heightened alert following the series of attacks waged by the New People’s Army (NPA) in Surigao provinces.
Field units were alerted to possible attacks by the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) before or on the day of the State of Nation Address (SONA) of President Duterte next week.
PRO 13 Regional Director Chief Supt. Rolando B. Felix ordered regional, provincial and city mobile force commanders and city and provincial directors as well as municipal chiefs of police to strengthen their respective headquarters’ defense perimeter against NPA attacks.
The region’s police chief also ordered field units including those in the coastal areas to conduct “round-the-clock” patrol in their respective areas of responsibility (AORs).
“Buddy-buddy system must be also practiced at all times and the best defense is always offense,” he said.
He also ordered field unit commanders to strengthen security measures in all key government and private installations as well as checkpoints spread out in the different areas in the region, particularly in the regional borders in the northeastern and southern Mindanao regions.
In Kidapawan City, government troops recovered from a remote village in Arakan town in North Cotabato the cadaver of a still unidentified person believed to be a member of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) who was among those who conducted a checkpoint along the Cotabato-Bukidnon highway, Wednesday.
Arakan Mayor Rene Rubino said soldiers belonging to the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion brought the body of the slain rebel to a funeral parlor in Poblacion, around 7 p.m., on Wednesday, two hours after his body was recovered at Sitio Bugasong, Barangay Napaliko.
The rebel, who was wearing white T-shirt and camouflage pants, was not among the constituents of Mayor Rubino.“No one from Barangay Napaliko knew who the person was. I believe he came from another town,” said the mayor.
The rebels, according to Rubino, withdrew to Barangay Napaliko after 39th IB soldiers and other military units assigned near Barangay Gambodes arrived at the crime scene to rescue trapped members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG).