Eastern Visayas top cop condemns NPA ambush in Samar

From the Philippine News Agency (May 31): Eastern Visayas top cop condemns NPA ambush in Samar

The New People’s Army (NPA) has violated the international humanitarian law on the use of landmine when they ambushed a police patrol car Thursday afternoon in Samar province.

This was the reaction of the top cop in Eastern Visayas as he condemned the cowardly and treacherous act of the rebel group.

“This is clearly an evil and terroristic act. We will pursue these lawless elements and bring them to the bar of justice,” said Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8) director C/Supt. Elmer R. Soria as he ordered pursuit operations against the rebels who ambushed his men past 1:00 P.M. on Thursday.

The police regional director informed that communist rebels set off a roadside bomb and opened fire on a police patrol car carrying members of Paranas Municipal Police Station along the Maharlika Highway in Brgy. Tagbayaon, Jiabong town in Samar.

Paranas police chief, C/Insp. Doughlas Antonio B. Eloja, and his men -- PO3 Cayetano Abantao, PO2 Romulo Tabique and PO2 Rodrigo Agbon Jr., were en route to Catbalogan City, some eight kilometers northwest from the ambush site, to attend a court hearing when undetermined number of communists-terrorists detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) and sprayed the vehicle with gunfire, he added.

The policemen were able to maneuver towards the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) facility at nearby Brgy. Lagundi and escaped death.

The patrol car was slightly damaged by shrapnels and bullets.

Troops set up roadblocks and dispatched reinforcements to track down the assailants, said Soria.

The incident occurred three days after an ambush carried out by NPA rebels in a far-flung village in Allacapan, Cagayan that left eight police commandos of the PNP’s elite unit, the Special Action Force, dead and seven others wounded.

Soria said government forces have heightened their pursuit operations against the perpetrators.

In Eastern Visayas, the most notorious barbaric act staged by NPA terrorists in recent years was on August 21, 2010 in a remote area of Sitio Elembo, Brgy. Imelda in Catarman, Northern Samar when eight policemen, now known as “Catarman 8,” were mercilessly executed by the communists.

The lawmen were on their way to investigate the killing of a village official perpetrated by the rebels when their patrol car was hit by a landmine. After the explosion, the NPAs also peppered the policemen with bullets; most were shot on the head, ensuring their death.

The rebels also took the policemen’s personal belongings like wallets, uniforms, and service firearms.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=529801