Guihulngan a 'problem' area–PRO-7

Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO7) has tagged Guihulngan, Negros Oriental as a “problem area” after a militant group allegedly opened fire at a police detachment, leaving one cop wounded.

"We consider still the place as a problem area, especially that elections are right around the corner," Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, PRO-7 director, said in a press conference.

Police Officer 1 Elvis John Lusaran suffered a gunshot wound to her stomach after 15 members of an alleged militant group, Kilusang Rehiyonal Negros (KRN), riddled the base in Sitio Mandi-e Barangay Hinakpan with gunshots from 700-meter distance.

Lusaran is now in stable condition at a hospital in Dumaguete City.

Senior Superintendent Raul Tacaca, director of Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO), said it was just a form of harassment and was not meant as an attack.

If the perpetrators wanted to kill, he said, they would have attacked at a closer range.

Police only recovered two empty shells of a high-powered firearm from the area.

Tacaca earlier said the retaliation by KRN may have stemmed from an incident wherein police barred some of its members in a checkpoint and prevented them from joining a protest rally.

Sinas said he has directed his personnel not to vacate the base.

The area is near the territorial boundary between Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental. It has also an access road to Dumaguete City.

It’s the same area where six police officers, including city police chief superintendent Arnel Arpon, were killed in an ambush last year.

As elections near, Sinas said they anticipate the emergence of private armed groups from Guihulngan area.

He said the Philippine National Police and the local government unit are strengthening the conduct of anti-terrorism campaign. —