DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 10, 2014) – Dozens of communist rebels attacked a police headquarters and killed two and wounded three other policemen in a daring raid at dawn Monday in the southern Philippines, security officials said.
The attack occurred even as police and military earlier warned all its commanders to stay on high alert because of intelligence report of an impending raid by New People’s Army rebels.
Officials said two rebels were allegedly slain in a gunbattle with pursuing government soldiers in Davao del Sur’s Matanao town where rebel forces arrived in trucks and attacked the headquarters that killed PO1 Manolo Booc and PO3 Danny Moalang.
The wounded policemen have been identified as Insp. Renato Uy, PO1 Sherwin Cadungog and PO1 Gilbert Legaspi.
Other reports said as many as 10 soldiers were slain and nine more wounded in the succeeding clashes. Government media also said that 9 rebels were captured.
Officials tagged the leader of the raiders as Felix Armodia alias Ka Jing, who heads the NPA forces in Davao and Cotabato provinces.
There was no immediate statement from the rebel group about the latest attack, but it had previously warned of fresh offensives against police and military targets.
In December, rebel forces stormed a police headquarters in Don Victoriano Chiongbian town in the southern Misamis Occidental province and seized a cache of weapons, including a machine gun before escaping towards Zamboanga del Sur province.
The NPA also raided the police headquarters in Kibawe town in Bukidnon province near Misamis and killed and wounded 5 officers and carted at least 13 assorted weapons. The rebels have been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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