DAVAO CITY (January 31)— The police officer killed by t the New People’s Army (NPA) in Magpet, North Cotabato, was an expectant father, who is set to marry his fiancee next month.
The girlfriend of PO1 Christopher Anadon, 28, told reporters, they have set to wed in February. She is three months pregnant and, they are excited to see the fruit of their love.
She was in pain, in grief, but she stand strong, their dream wedding will no longer happen, Anadon won’t be able to see their child July.
Senior Supt. Maximo Layugan, North Cotabato police director, said Anadon was with about 20 other police officers heading for Kidapawan City from Barangay Poblacion, Magpet when a roadside bomb went off in Purok Kabisig at 6 p.m. Monday.
Anadon, who hailed in Parang, Maguindanao, was driving the police vehicle of North Cotabato Provincial Police Mobile Force, when they were hit by an anti-personnel landmine planted by the NPA rebels.
Eleven other police officers were injured, two of them still confined at the Amas Provincial Hospital in Kidapawan City.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Rasco, police director for Region 12, condemned the communist rebels’ use of anti-personnel landmines.
Rasco lauded other police officers who stood their ground following the explosion by trading bullets with the NPA ambushers.
Police authorities believed the NPAs also suffered casualties but they brought along with them their fallen comrade.
Rasco appealed to the public in Region 12 to help the police eradicate the terrorists and remain extra vigilant against terrorism. The Communist Party of the Philippines/NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. –Edwin O. Fernandez
