Armed men storm PNP Roxas police station in Palawan

From the Philippine Information Agency (Dec 12): Armed men storm PNP Roxas police station in Palawan

Suspected communist rebels stormed the PNP Station in Roxas municipality this morning, leaving one police dead and one officer injured. Shots were heard inside the PNP station located within the Roxas municipal hall compound when the PNP officers wrestled with the armed men to protect and secure the station, said Rosemary Paguia, municipal information officer, in a phone interview.The fatality was identified as SPO3 Ramoncito Rabang while SPO4 Pablo Acosta Jr. is now being treated at the Roxas Baptist Hospital.

Paguia and other local government officials, including Mayor Maria Angela Sabando, were in the nearby municipal gymnasium for the opening program of a training attended by all public elementary teachers in the municipality. Paguia said that the armed men numbering about 20 were in full-battle gear and went to the PNP station on pretext that they were to turn over detainees. But when the armed men got inside, they announced that they were NPA and took the guns found in the rooms they searched. They fled going south inside two vans which were reported to have been abandoned in Barangay Abaroan, a few kilometers south of the town proper.

After the raid of the station, leaflets containing the alleged reason for the raid were scattered about by the fleeing armed men. These were signed by a certain Samuel Caballero, spokesman of the Bienvenido Valleber Command – NPA Palawan.

In a radio interview over local radio, 2nd Lt. Ann Abrigo, public information officer of the Western Command, said the Wescom is on top of the situation and immediately dispatched truckloads of reinforcements to Roxas town. As of now, the OV-10 of the Philippine Air Force and its Sikorsky helicopter are doing reconnaissance of areas to help in the pursuit of the armed rebels.She said that the Wescom has initiated the setting up of check points along the national highway and some other provincial roads. Abrigo assured the public that the Wescom will uphold foremost the safety of the people in its hot pursuit operation, and that it committed to the maintenance of peace and order in the province.

http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=711355293139