DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 20, 2014) – Three communist rebels were killed and a policeman wounded in fierce fighting early Tuesday after insurgents attacked a police headquarters in the southern Philippines, security officials said.
Officials said New People’s Army rebels arrived on a truck and a small van and attacked the police base in North Cotabato’s President Roxas town. The fighting lasted over 30 minutes with policemen holding their grounds despite being outnumbered.
The rebels fled for fear the bursts of gunfire had alerted military forces in the town and abandoned their vehicles near the village of Tuael, according to Capt. Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command.
He said policemen recovered several weapons and a radio set, including a medical kit left behind the fleeing rebels.
“General Cruz has ordered troops to pursue the rebels responsible for the attack,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner. Caber was referring to Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command.
The attack on the police base came a day after rebel forces raided two mining companies in the southern Philippines and seized assorted weapons.
The rebels swooped down on Sodaco, a subsidiary of DMCI Holdings in Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat province and disarmed its security guards before ransacking the arsenal. There were no casualties in the raid, but rebels led by Joan Casamorin and Randy Lasib managed to flee with 14 shotguns, six .45-caliber pistols, a laptop and one GPS global navigation tool.
NPA rebels also attacked the facilities of Sagittarius Mining in Davao del Sur’s Kiblawan town and torched 3 container vans that served as sleeping quarters of security guards. The facility has long been abandoned by Sagittarius Mining and that security guards were only there to guard it from thieves.
The NPA has been fighting for the establishment of a communist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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