By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson assured the public that there is no cause for alarm following the two ambush incidents in the town of Binalbagan and San Carlos City earlier this month.

According to Lacson, the two incidents are 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, is not clear to Lacson, although he believes the incident was a “mistaken identity.”

He also confirmed that the family of one of the fatalities in the San Carlos City ambush has approached him for burial assistance.

Earlier on February 13 a police patrol car belonging to Binalbagan Municipal Police Station was responding to a shooting incident in the town’s Barangay Bi-ao when they were ambushed by NPA rebels.

The ambush wounded two police officers and a teenaged civilian.

A week later on February 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 as it was later found out that the victims’ vehicle was allegedly owned by an alleged drug kingpin in the city, and one of the victims was later identified to be under the police’s drugs watchlist./DGB, WDJ