PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, (PNA) -– The military here has placed all detachments of the Philippine Marines Corps (PMC) in Palawan on heightened alert following Wednesday night’s ambush of two 6×6 trucks that wounded troops along the national highway in Barangay Langogan.
According to Lt. Rowena Bunol-Dalmacio, spokesperson of the 3rd Marine Brigade (Mbde), all their detachments were placed on heightened alert following hot pursuit operations in the vicinity of Barangay Langogan and nearby areas against 12 suspected armed men who staged the ambush Wednesday night.
“Sa ngayon po ay nasa heightened alert ang ating mga Marines, ang lahat ng mga detachments ongoing pa rin iyong ating pursuit operations para mahuli itong mga perpetrators na ito (Right now, all our Marines and all our detachment are on heightened alert while our pursuit operations continue to catch these perpetrators),” she said.
Dalmacio added 3rd MBde commander Brig. Gen. Andrei Costales is himself in Langogan to oversee “the situation” under orders from Western Command (Wescom) Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero.
Meanwhile, Maj. Oliver Banaria of the 6th Civil Relations Group (CRG) and OIC spokesperson of the Wescom, said the suspects are members of the New People’s Army (NPA), who probably want to avenge the confiscation of their large high powered firearms hoard in San Vicente in July this year.
“The style of conducting ambush one after the other is by the NPA because of the confiscation of their arms cache last July. We know that the NPA will not let that pass without retaliating,” said Banaria.
Hurt in the ambush were Pfc. Dominic Principe and Pfc. Angelo Acosta. They are now recuperating at the military hospital at Camp Artemio Ricarte in Barangay San Manuel. The two military trucks, on the other hand, have been removed from the scene of the ambush.