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DUMAGUETE CITY: A village chief
and four other civilians were killed while many others were wounded
when unidentified men ambushed and fired upon the truck they were
riding from the town proper to a hinterland village in La Libertad
town in northern Negros Oriental around 5:15 p.m. Friday.
Killed were
Barangay Aya chairman Lydio Bayllon while the other fatalities still
remain unidentified as sketchy reports continue to pour in at the
Philippine National Police Provincial Office, said provincial police
director Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe.
Initial
reports said the service truck of Barangay Aya, loaded with an
undetermined number of people, was leaving the town proper around
late afternoon when armed men staged the attack at Barangay
Manluminsag, La Libertad, some 120 kilometers north of Dumaguete
City.
Buenafe said
the motive of the ambush nor the identity of the suspects were not
immediately known even as police and Army personnel from the 11th
Infantry Battalion based in northern Negros were conducting hot
pursuit operations.
The provincial
police director was headed toward La Libertad at sundown Friday to
meet with his counterpart commanders of the Philippine Army and to
further investigate the incident.
Buenafe
declined to speculate on whether the ambush was election-related,
politically-motivated or perpetrated by the New People’s Army.
Some of the
wounded were brought to the Guihulngan district hospital, while
others were said to be brought to hospitals in Dumaguete.
It was also
not immediately known exactly how many people were on board the
service truck used to ferry people to the hinterland village as part
of the local government unit’s free services to the people.
La Libertad
town is located next to Guihulngan, one of the province’s critical
insurgency-affected areas.
Both towns
form part of the first district of the province which the Commission
on Elections (Comelec) and the police are keeping a close watch on
as a three-pronged congressional race is expected in the coming May
14 polls.
Though the
Comelec has not yet identified any area of immediate concern in
Negros Oriental, the first district has been tagged as critical due
to its political history and the continuing insurgency problem in
the north of Negros Island.
 --PNA
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