BAUKO, Mountain Province – A policeman was killed while eight of his colleagues were injured after being struck by the explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED) that was suspected to be a land mine while conducting hot pursuit operations against fleeing heavily armed members of the New Peoples Army (NPA) in the boundary of Bauko and Tadian towns late Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Superintendent Israel Efraim Dixon, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera, identified the fatality as Police Cpl. Marlon Casil, a native of Kibungan Benguet while he named those injufred in the said unfortunate incident as Pat. Erwin Calixto, Police Cpl. Macelo Bayeng, Police Cpk. Ramadick Melay, Police Cpl. Clifford Gama, Police Cpl. Edwin Keya, Police Cpl. John Calcaligong, Police Staff Sergeant Salvador Agalatiw and Police Master Sergeant Alpides Alvaro, all members of the 1502nd maneuver company of the Regional Mobile Force Company.
The police official claimed that the operating troops were conducting hot pursuit operations against the fleeing members of the NPA that engaged the law enforcers in an earlier encounter in sitio Malabagan, Bagnen Proper, here, last the Thursday, when an IED believed to be a land mine that were planted by the rebels along their escape route suddenly exploded that resulted to the killing of the fatality and the wounding of his colleagues.
According to him, joint personnel of the Bauko and Tadian Municipal Police Stations are currently conducting rescue operations on the involved police personnel to extricate the killed and wounded in the police operations for them to be provided with immediate attention by the concerned authorities.
Earlier Pat. Wildredo Padawil was killed and Cpl. Airpeel Lapniten was injured when law enforcers engaged some fifteen heavily armed rebels in an encounter in the mountainous portion of sitio Malabagan, Bagnen Proper, here Thursday.
By Dexter A. see
