BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental governor Eugenio Jose Lacson assured the public there is no cause for alarm following two ambush incidents in the town of Binalbagan and San Carlos City earlier this month.
According to Lacson, the two incidents were not election-related with the New People’s Army (NPA) already admitting responsibility for the incident in Binalbagan.
The incident in San Carlos City, meanwhile, was not clear to Lacson, although he believed the incident was a case of “mistaken identity.”
He also confirmed that the family of one of the fatalities in the San Carlos City ambush approached him for burial assistance.
On Feb. 13, a police patrol car of the Binalbagan municipal police station responding to a shooting incident in the town’s Barangay Bi-ao was ambushed by NPA rebels.
Two police officers and a teenaged civilian were wounded.
A week after, on Feb. 20, unidentified gunmen killed three people in an ambush in San Carlos City’s Barangay Palampas.
A fourth victim managed to survive the attack, and police currently suspect that the ambush stemmed over illegal drugs. One of the victims was later identified to be under the police’s drugs watch list./PN
