BE CAUTIOUS. Col. Romeo Baleros, director of Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, reminded his men on Tuesday (July 23, 2019) to exercise more caution when responding to calls for assistance in risky areas. Baleros said they want to prevent a repeat of the incident in Ayungon, Negros Oriental, where four mobile force personnel were abducted and killed by New People’s Army rebels. (PNA Bacolod file photo)
BACOLOD CITY – Personnel of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office have been urged anew to exercise more caution when responding to calls for assistance in risky areas.
Col. Romeo Baleros, police provincial director, said he issued a memorandum to the mobile force companies and police stations following the incident in Ayungon, Negros Oriental, which claimed the lives of four policemen.
“We sent a memo telling them to be extra cautious in responding to calls for police assistance,” he said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
On July 18, Cpl. Relebert Beronio, Pat. Raffy Callao, Pat. Roel Cabellon, and Pat. Marquino de Leon of the 704th Mobile Force Company of the 7th Regional Mobile Force Battalion were seized and summarily executed by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Sitio Yamot, Barangay Mabato.
The four were on their way to the detachment at Sitio Nabinca when they were abducted and shot several times.
Baleros earlier condemned what he called barbaric and inhumane acts of the communist-terrorist group, and expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of their fallen comrades.
He said he reminded policemen in Negros Occidental to conduct a risk assessment of the area, which has presence of armed groups and criminals, before proceeding to respond.
“We want to prevent a duplication of the gruesome incident (in Ayungon),” the provincial police chief said.
Baleros further said he reminded his men to be alert in defending the police stations.
“Deploy personnel in full battle gear and arrest suspicious persons to prevent them from going close to the police station,” he added.
Meanwhile, Baleros also warned Negrenses to be aware of posers who pretended to be him and ask for cellular phone loads.
He said on Tuesday that two persons have already been victimized, including a project contractor and a government employee. Each of them gave the suspect PHP5,000 worth of load cards, he added.
“I’m appealing to the public, beware of the modus of this syndicated group or person,” Baleros said. (PNA)
