On Sunday, September 22, two truckloads of NPA rebels attacked the Cantilan Police Station at around 1 p.m. According to reports, there were only two policemen present when the raid happened. As soon as they arrived, the rebels started strafing the station destroying property inside the station and the office of the police chief. The gunfire lasted for roughly 15 minutes. The policemen on duty did not even have the chance to return fire considering that they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned. Both of them were wounded and one of them was supposedly treated by one of the women NPA rebels. I don't know if we were supposed to thank them for this act of magnanimity. The fate of the other cop is still not clear. He was supposed to have been airlifted to Davao.
I read a copy of the letter that purportedly came from the rebel group. It listed several "sins of ommission and commission" that members of the police department of Cantilan has supposedly done, including drug use (shabu), kutong or filching of drivers of tricycles and motorized tricycads, and crime protection. Other "sinners" included illegal loggers and they mentioned a few names. I will not mention the names of those who were mentioned in the letter in fairness to them. I have no basis of knowing whether these people really committed such "sins". What the rebels listed are mere allegations as far as I am concerned. It is up to the legal authorities to prove if these allegations are true or not.
I believe that this letter is just a smokescreen put up by the NPA. The real reason for this raid, for me, was for them to make a statement. To me, this says very boldly that they can penetrate any town in the area, that the government is ineffective in stopping them and that they can do it again. In doing this, the NPA's merely highlighted security lapses on the part of the police and the military and this is something that should be seriously looked into.
The police and the military have several questions that they should answer and these should be investigated by both of these groups or maybe even somebody independent from these groups. First, as far as the military is concerned, the question I would pose to them is: Was there a breakdown in military intelligence? Were they not able to detect movements inside the rebel group?
The rebels were supposed to have organized in Banban, Panikian, Carrascal, Surigao del Sur. If the military were on top of things, they were supposed to have detected these movements and prepared for the eventuality of an attack. However, in light of the situation in Maguindanao where the AFP have been massing their troops, there's reason to believe that the military suffers from lack of manpower. Their troops are heavily concentrated in Maguindanao and the MILF areas where war is going on. If this is true, what is the policy of the military as far as dispersing troops is concerned? In the process of heavily massing troops in Western Mindanao, aren't they exposing the rest of Mindanao or the country in general to serious security threats coming from the NPA?
As far as the police is concerned, I have a few questions. Why were there only two people on duty? In a town as big as Cantilan, how many cops are supposed to be on duty at any given time during the day? Where was the police chief when the incident happened or in the absence of the police chief, who was the highest ranking officer on duty? In light of this incident, I would also like to know how many cops are assigned on detail with the town Mayor? As far as I know, there are two cops who are assigned to provide security for the Mayor. Are these cops on a full time basis providing security for the mayor? Isn't it a little disproportionate that two cops are assigned on full detail for one person and yet only two cops were on duty last Sunday supposedly guarding the whole town of Cantilan?
These are some of the questions that I would like our authorities to answer. The answers to these questions will tell us where our security forces failed to provide us with basic security. It will also help us prepare for such attacks in case they happen again in the future, if we ever learn our lesson.
Wake up people! Do you want this to happen again? Let us condemn the act committed by the NPA and at the same time, call on our military, police and elected officials to do something to prevent such an act from happening again in the future.
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6 comments:
guapa:)
Truly, the raid was a statement that our police forces are not only lax in providing security for the community.
Though we dont like to entertain the thought that our police officers have failed to perform their true function of giving security to our community, but it give us a thought to ponder on: where are the efforts of the police focused right now?
They might have been busy protecting the big people who are in the mining busy in the area? They might be busy protecting their own interests - drug pushing, or whatever..
Are our police officers serving the community or their vested interests or of the few where there is bigger money.
yeah! our police are really really bala bala. they need, uhm! uhm! all they need is money in their yeah over in it so be their for them. hampan, let us congratulate for the brave and gallant over the move of the two wounded polis na nabilin. yeah!
good question anonymous. the last I heard, the entire force will be transferred to another place hopefully to start an impartial investigation. thanks guaps. :)
guapa:>
but will the transfer solve the real problem of out policemen being not able to provide security and safety to the people of Cantilan.
Right now, there are members of the PNP RMG that are manning our local policemen. It just remind me of the martial law years where there was heavy militarization. I fear of that time again.
How about the Phil Army presence at Babujan and Panikian brgys. It has made the people of these brgys to come downm to the lowland and bring their little possessions. I am afraid again that what we see on tv as experienced by the people in the Abu Sayyaf areas will be experienced by the people of these once peaceful, even silent brgys. I am very much concerned of any possible trauma it would bring, as any militarization would, to these ordinary people of Brgy. babujan and panikian.
that's a valid point.
this is really a consequence of the heavy dependence of GMA with the military resulting in the antagonization of the left. GMA's heavy-handedness in dealing with those involved with communism is actually counterproductive. FVR had a more correct method of dealing with the left: improve the economy and the problems that are being exploited by the communists to get support will slowly go away. In short, the only way to combat insurgency is thru people's stomachs, not militarization. the government should instead focus its policy towards creating jobs. GMA, because of the legitimacy issue, cannot focus on the job at hand thus she creates diversions such as the communist bogey. We have to remember that communism is a dead ideology. In fact, in the years before GMA, the NPA has been losing a lot of members but now, they are back with a vengeance. What you're pointing out anonymous is a national security problem, not just a local security problem.
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