SOME police retirees from Negros Occidental tagged an incumbent politician in the death of Guihulngan City police chief Arnel Arpon, who was among those killed in the ambush perpetrated by communist rebels on July 21.
This also prompted them to seek the help of President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a letter sent to Duterte on Wednesday, August 2, copies of which were sent to the local media, the League of Retired Police Officers, represented by a certain “retired Superintendent Amado Reynaldo Marquez” claimed that Arpon was killed due to his campaign against illegal drugs.
The group claimed that Arpon “opposed the expansion of the drug operations” of an incumbent official, whom they accused as the “brains of illegal drugs” in northern Negros.
The group also said the official pays the top leader of the rebel movement in Negros Island P100,000 every month, along with the medical expenses of his wife.
“Mr. President, your policemen were killed because of drugs. Please don’t talk to the rebels anymore. They will kill your policemen and soldiers and you. The rebels only listen to Joma (Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison), their sick god,” the group appealed to Duterte.
Moreover, the group said that a former town mayor in the province, who is being eyed to have a post in the National Government, is in bed with the New People’s Army (NPA).
“Please be informed Mr. President that he will be a termite in your administration for he is in an unholy alliance with those who seek to bring you down as the bulwark of freedom and democracy in our country,” the group told Duterte in the letter.
They alleged that the former town official is in cahoots with the District Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) based in the mountainous areas of Salvador Benedicto, Calatrava, Toboso and Escalante City.
“Our intelligence sources also tell us that he has at least 60 armed men loaded with high-powered automatic firearms,” they said, adding that the armed group is responsible for killing a rebel returnee and a peasant leader.
Also, the group alleged that a militant leader responsible for CPP’s extortion activities forced a former provincial department head to put some top rebels “in the payroll of the Provincial Government as ghost employees.”
The group said they are willing to help the President in the fight against criminality and illegal drugs.
“If you want war, just call on us and we shall emerge from the shadows of retirement,” they told the President.
“We are but a few in the island – scores of commissioned officers, mostly graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy and the Philippine Military Academy and hundreds of police non-commissioned officers who have served without question and pledged our loyalty to our flag and country,” they said.
The group added: “We have chosen to remain anonymous, Mr. President, afraid that even the hierarchy of the PNP (Philippine National Police) and DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) have been infested by termites who are close to the top echelons of the police.”
They said they have heard the call of Duterte to serve the country and have supported his anti-criminality campaign.
“We now come to you, your Excellency, firm in the belief that you would heed our cries, listen to our pleas that we make on bended knees, our prayers wet by our tears and the blood of the brave policemen of Guihulngan in Negros Oriental who were mercilessly slaughtered by the God-less terrorists and government destabilizers who call themselves the NPA," the group added in the letter.