Reds taunt govt troops with another checkpoint

From the Manila Standard Today (Jan 24): Reds taunt govt troops with another checkpoint

A day after 100 New People’s Army guerrilas raided a Misamis Oriental town and set up checkpoints, the communist insurgents again taunted security forces and put up another checkpoint in the neighboring province of Agusan del Sur to collect “revolutionary taxes” from a log trader.

Reports reaching Camp Crame said 10 NPA guerillas flagged down a truck loaded with logs at an isolated barangay in Sibagat, Agusan del Sur. The truck, driven by trader Remigio Gala, was en route to Barangay Poblacion from Barangay Kauswagan when the rebels stopped the vehicle and demanded the payment of revolutionary taxes. When Gala refused to pay the monthly revolutionary tax, the communists, supposedly belonging to the NPA Guerilla Front 21 operating Eastern Mindanao, unloaded the logs and set the truck on fire.

On Tuesday, around 100 NPA guerillas raided houses in the town of Kinoguitan in the neighboring province of Misamis Oriental and also set up their checkpoints along the highways around the coastal town some 80 kilometers east of Cagayan De Oro City.
The communists raided the homes of known soldiers and retired policemen and seized their firearms.

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima ordered all PNP units, particularly in known rebel infested areas, to fortify their positions against potential attacks by the NPA. Purisima’s directive is in response to the recent abduction of a policeman and an army soldier at another NPA checkpoint in Compostela Valley. Purisima said that the PNP are in close coordination with the armed forces to safely rescued P01 Ruel Passion and PFC Jezreel Culango who are still held captive by suspected NPA’s.

“We have to be alert all times for possible attacks by NPA rebels and other threat groups on various PNP checkpoints to deter recurrence of this incident,” Purisima told.
He said that PNP units assigned in far flung areas are always targets of NPA’s and “they should be security conscious,” to avert such attacks.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/01/24/reds-taunt-govt-troops-with-another-checkpoint/