STOLEN FIREARMS. Some of the firearms found by military and police forces after an encounter with the CPP-NPA rebels in Barangay Santol, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental on July 6, 2022. The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office confirmed on Thursday (July 14) two of the recovered firearms were seized by the communist rebels in separate attacks on policemen in Negros Island in 2008 and 2010.
(Images courtesy of 303rd Infantry Brigade, Philippine Army)
BACOLOD CITY – Two of the firearms recovered by government troops from the four Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) rebels who died during a clash in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental last July 6 were stolen from personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
According to the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO), these guns were taken by the communist rebels in separate attacks on policemen in Negros Island in 2008 and 2010.
Lt. Judesses Catalogo, acting spokesperson of NOCPPO, said on Thursday this confirmation debunks the claim of the CPP-NPA that the clash in Binalbagan was not a legitimate security operation, pointing out that the neutralized rebels were actually carrying guns looted from police stations.
“The recovered firearms are being subjected to ballistic examination at the NOCPPO forensics unit for microetching and ballistics comparison to determine if these were also used in other crimes perpetrated by members of the CPP-NPA,” Catalogo added.
The first firearm, a Springfield M14 rifle, was issued to Cpl. Jose Ray Bringuez, who was formerly assigned at the Sipalay City Police Station.
The rifle was stolen by a group of 30 rebels who attacked the community police assistance center in Barangay San Jose on April 30, 2010.
Catalogo said they confirmed the firearm’s ownership through the PNP Logistics Data Information Management System.
The other weapon, a caliber .45 pistol, belonged to Staff Sgt. Ranulfo Sarsaba Estrada of Guihulngan City Police Station in Negros Oriental, based on a check with the Regional Civil Security Unit-Western Visayas.
On Nov. 3, 2008, some 40 rebels ransacked the La Libertad Municipal Police Station, Estrada’s former unit, and took his personal firearm as one of the loots.
The four CPP-NPA rebels, who all belonged to the NPA’s Central Negros 2-Komiteng Rehiyon Negros, were among those behind the ambush of personnel of Binalbagan Municipal Police Station in Barangay Bi-ao last February, a report of the Philippine Army’s 303rd Infantry Battalion said.
On the morning of July 6, troops from the 94th Infantry Battalion, 33rd Division Reconnaissance Company, and the Negros Occidental Police Mobile Force Company engaged the rebels and recovered four bodies of the enemy after the encounter in Sitio Amilis, Barangay Santol.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (PNA)
