A police officer was killed while eight others were hurt after suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels ambushed the security convoy of Occidental Mindoro Governor Eduardo Gadiano in Magsaysay town on Friday, May 28, police said.
A report from the Occidental Mindoro provincial police office identified the slain officer as Police Executive Master Sergeant Jonathan Alvarez. Gadiano was safe after the ambush, police said.
Wounded from the attack were Police Staff Sgts. Dexter Sagun, Edwin Vergara, Michael Sualog, Michael Enero, and Nolito Develos; Corporal Kim Jayson Dimalaluan; and Patrolmen Armando Pulido and Danny Soriano. Meanwhile, two other cops identified as Cpls. Stan Gonggora and Nicolas Estopacio Jr. remained missing as of this posting.
According to the report, the ambush occured at a secluded portion of Sitio Banban in Barangay Nicolas around 10:30 a.m.
Lt. Col. Jordan Pacatiw, provincial director of the Occidental Mindoro police, said in an interview over ABS-CBN News that an undetermined number of gunmen fired at the security convoy of Gadiano after the governor attended a "Serbisyo Caravan" of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC).
Gadiano reportedly said that his vehicle in the convoy had already passed the encounter site when the actual attack occured, thus leaving him unscathed.
Police have already dispatched a unit of elite Special Action Forces (SAF) while the Philippine Army sent an augmentation force to hunt down the suspects.
The wounded soldiers were rushed to a medical facility for treatment. Pacatiw said some of them were in critical condition.