By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) yesterday condemned the killing of four police officers in a brutal attack perpetrated by New People’s Army (NPA) insurgents last Thursday in Ayungon, Negros Oriental.
NOPPO director, Police Colonel Romeo Baleros, called the actions “barbaric and inhumane.”
The four slain cops, identified as Police Corporal Relebert Beronio, alongside Police Patrolmen Raffy Callao, Roel Cabellon, and Marquino De Leon, were ambushed at Sitio Yamot in the town’s Barangay Mabato.
Based on information provided by Police Regional Office-7, the four proceeded were in plain clothes gathering intelligence against a wanted NPA rebel.
The four were also believed to have been tortured before rebels shot them in the head.
The insurgents also carted away the officers’ service firearms and motorcycles.
Following the incident, Baleros asked local residents to help in combating the insurgents.
The incident also prompted the entire Philippine Army in Negros to go on ‘heightened alert.’
Prior to the incident, the Philippine Army 62nd Infantry Battalion engaged in a gun battle with NPA rebels in the same town, which resulted in the death of an NPA insurgent who was later identified as 22-year-old Himamaylan resident Joseph Pacheco./DGB, WDJ