MANILA - The New People's Army has apologized to the Guingona family for attacking a convoy of Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie de Lara Guingona Saturday night in Barangay Binakalan, Gingoog, Misamis Oriental.
Guingona is the wife of former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona Jr. and the mother of Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III.
The mayor and her party were on their way back to Gingoog City after attending a fiesta celebration and pageant at Brgy. Alagatan when their vehicles were stopped by armed men at Sitio Dumayokod.
The mayor’s convoy was showered with bullets from the back and side by the armed men. A firefight ensued between the armed men and Guingona’s six police escorts, which lasted for about 10 minutes.
Guingona and her party were shot several times, with the mayor sustaining wounds in her arms and feet.
Her driver, Bartolome Velasco, and his brother, Nelson Velasco, who also served as Guingona’s bodyguard, died in the incident.
Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-New Democratic Front in Central Mindanao confirmed that their members in Misamis Oriental were involved in the firefight.
While the NPA apologized for the incident, they also insisted that it was not an ambush; rather, they said they were defending their group that was conducting a checkpoint.
Madlos also claimed that it was Guingona’s escorts who fired first.
