Ka Greg Bañares
Spokesperson, NDF-Bicol
The 9th Infantry Division-Philippine Army is weaving a web of lies when it said that that it was a unit of the New People’s Army that ambushed and attempted to snatch Glicerio ‘Ka Choy’ Pernia from his police escorts around 10:20 am earlier today in Brgy. Lower Binogsacan, Guinobatan, Albay.
No unit of the NPA was involved in this incident and it is clear that what happened was a dastardly attempt of the AFP to assassinate Ka Choy who is a consultant of the NDFP Peace Panel and then put the blame on the NPA.
Ka Choy and his escorts had just attended a court hearing in Ligao City and were onboard a vehicle on the way back to the Albay Provincial Jail when they were shot at. They were near a detachment of the 502nd PNP-PMG at the time. One of the police escorts, PO1 Rommel Aringo, was hit in the back.
A few minutes after the shooting, the spokesperson of the 901st Brigade swiftly released a statement charging the NPA of a botched ‘rescue attempt’ on Ka Choy. This was despite the lack of investigation by the Philippine National Police. It seemed that the military officials were already expecting such an event; their error was that their respective scripts did not match and gave the wrong place of incident.
The place of incident was near the detachment of the 502nd PPMG, and the large camps of the 8th Scout Ranger Company, the camp of the 22nd IB-PA and CAFGU. Also, majority of the nearby baranggays are occupied by the special operations team (SOT) of the 901st Brigade, so it is farthest from the truth to say that a team or squad of the NPA had stationed themselves in the area to stage an ambush.
The US-Arroyo regime and its armed forces should be held accountable for the failed assassination attempt on Ka Choy who is covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), for its continued refusal to release the consultants and staff of the NDFP Panel who were illegally abducted, arrested and jailed, and for the outright sabotage of the peace negotiations.
Translated by the NDFP-Joint Secretariat from the original Filipino text.
