CBCP weeps for victims of NPA atrocities

Saddened by the rebel ambush that killed six rookie policemen in Cagayan, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is one with the bereaved families in prayer for their loved ones who died for a noble cause.

In a message of sympathy issued Thursday, CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, along with other bishops, sent his heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families for immense losses of lives.

“We, your bishops, are deeply saddened and we extend to the bereaved families of our departed brothers – all of who were Police Officers 1, hence new recruits into the police force – as well as to the anxious members of the families of the wounded our assurances of prayer and solidarity in this dark hour,” they said.

“May eternal light shine on our departed brothers, and may their families find consolation in the promise of the Resurrection,” CBCP added.

The Association of Chiefs- of-Police of the Philippines Incorporated (ACPPI) also assailed the communists New People’s Army’s (NPA’s) treacherous attack in Baggao, Cagayan, last Tuesday that resulted in the death of the cops belonging to the Cagayan Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB).

Director Generoso Cerbo, Jr., national chairman of the ACPPI and concurrent PNP Director for Intelligence (DI), condemned to the fullest extent the attack of some 100 heavily armed NPA rebels in Barangay Sta. Margarita.

The ACPPI also assailed the NPA’s continuous use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and landmines in their terroristic activities, which is banned under the United Nations 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol II on landmines and booby-traps.