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Thursday, August 07, 2003
Editorial: Ambush (again) at Marangan
"UNIDENTIFIED armed men fired upon a Rural Transportation bus plying Cagayan de Oro City-Zamboanga City route while traversing along Barangay Tagasilay, Vitali District, Zamboanga City at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday."
"According to reports, Dante Libre YKY Algenio, the bus driver, unidentified armed men tried to stop the bus while it was cruising along Barangay Tagasilay and when they did not stop, the unidentified armed men fired upon the vehicle. The bus had 15 bullet holes."
"No one was injured among the passengers. Police authorities are still in the process of identifying the motive and identities of the perpetrators of the incident."
The preceding paragraphs were quoted verbatim from a press release released by the Southern Command.
Nothing was said of the fact that the military or the Philippine National Police (PNP) took measures to prevent such an occurrence in the highway.
Marangan has been a favorite ambush site in Zamboanga for the last 30 years.
Several buses have been shot at, burned and destroyed at Marangan. The number of people killed or wounded in ambuscades staged at the vicinity number by the dozen.
But did we hear of any arrest of the perpetrators? Did we hear of any detachment placed there to protect or discourage rebels, bandits or the naughty from stopping buses or shooting at the vehicles any time of the day?
If such a detachment was established, this was pulled out later on.
Weeks ago, armed men ambushed a military truck and wounded four soldiers, also at Marangan.
Why was nothing done to neutralize the ambushers and the criminals?
Have the authorities surrendered their duty to protect the people and stop them from being victimized along the highway?
(August 7, 2003 issue)
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