By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) said yesterday that it will conduct an investigation as to why the New People’s Army (NPA) has a shirt from the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) of a municipality in the province.

The shirt was from Binalbagan DRRMO, recovered by soldiers from the Philippine Army’s 94th Infantry Battalion following a gun battle with the NPA at Barangay Oringao in the province’s Kabankalan City over the weekend.

Police Captain Judesses Catalogo, NOCPPO spokesperson, pointed out several possibilities as to why the NPA has the shirt, such as one of them may be related to the employees working for the municipal government, or maybe even stolen.

Catalogo also pointed out that the incident was not the first time, as the NPA has a history of using Army or police uniforms to conduct their illicit activities.

“One way or another they could be using the government shirts and uniforms as a disguise in order to blend in with the locals,” he said.

The NOCPPO spokesperson said they will try to find out the person who originally owned the DRRMO shirt.

Meanwhile, Catalogo also identified two of the three slain NPA members in the encounter.

The two were identified as 42-year-old Junjun Callete, a resident of Negros Oriental’s Tayasan town; and Joemarie Calumba, a farm laborer and resident of Kabankalan City’s Barangay Oringao.

According to Catalogo, Callete was identified by a village official from Tayasan’s Barangay Tanlad.

Based on information provided by Callete’s mother to the authorities, Junjun was invited by his close friends to join the group last year.

However, his close friends have already surrendered to government forces after a series of defeats in several encounters.

Callete’s mother had also tried to convince his son to surrender, but he ignored his mother’s appeals and has not returned home since then.

Authorities have yet to identify the third fatality in the encounter./DGB, WDJ