Thursday, June 05, 2008 Rebel assassins out for PNP, AFP officials By Jay Dooma Balnig and Erwin Cabarles
A POLICE official and two military officers are reportedly among the targets of the Sparrow Unit, the urban hit squad of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People's Army (NPA).
The same information said no less than 10 members of the Sparrow Unit are tasked to kill Police Regional Director Isagani Cuevas, Region 2 Chief Cornelio Defensor, and 32nd Civil Relations Unit (CRU) Commander Lowen Gil Marquez.
Captain Marquez said he has received the same information but that only three men, not 10, were sent out to liquidate him. Two of the assassins are male while the third one is female.
He laughed off the threat, however, saying it is a rebel scheme aimed at scaring authority officials who are high in the campaign against insurgency in the country.
Marquez added he was even surprised to be only third in the list as he expected to be the prime target.
He said he was previously the primary target of the rebels and was surprised why this has changed.
The military official expected the threat to be like the previous ones, which never materialized because the rebels don't have the nerves to implement them.
He said he is used to death threats and is not afraid of the rebels.
In December last year, the rebels declared that Marquez would be dead before December 26, 2007. Marquez had laughed off the threat.
Cuevas, meanwhile, ordered the report validated, but said he would take extra precautions because the information cannot be taken lightly.
Defensor said he has not received any threat but that it is normal in his line of work.
The rebels released last year a hit list of people they intended to liquidate, and in the list are the names of police officers and local politicians.
A cop was killed in Negros, Occidental last year, and authorities believe the rebels were behind the slaying.
Authorities said the killing was the culmination of the training of new recruits, adding that a neophyte rebel must kill an enemy before he can be accepted as a full-pledged member.
There have been reports of sightings of Sparrow Unit members in Iloilo City, and some speculate that they are here to carry out their mission.
According to Marquez, Sparrow Unit members and the other communist rebels are traitors and cowards who kill the innocent and the defenseless.
