3 cops wounded in new ambush in remote southern Palawan town

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 1): 3 cops wounded in new ambush in remote southern Palawan town

Armed members of the communist-terrorist New People’s Army (NPA) have again staged another ambush at a remote sitio in Barangay Culasian, Rizal in southern Palawan at around 1:30 p.m. Monday, wounding three policemen, including the chief of police of the said town.

The early afternoon ambush was confirmed to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) by Lt. Col. Rodel Martires, the newly-installed commanding officer of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 12 (MBLT 12) stationed in Barangay Abo-Abo, Sofronio Española, also in southern Palawan.

Martires identified the wounded as Chief Insp. Brermar Herrera, chief of police of Rizal, SPO1 Robert Guerrero and SPO1 Norman Nicholas.

As of this writing, the wounded policemen are now being evacuated from Culasian to be brought to a nearby hospital in Quezon town for emergency medical attention.

From Quezon, the MBLT 12 commander said they will be airlifted to Puerto Princesa for further medical attention.

A hot pursuit operation against the undetermined number of armed rebels was immediately launched by a joint team composed of soldiers from MBLT 12 and police elements of the Palawan Provincial Police Office (PPPO) under Sr. Supt. Atanacio Macalan Jr.

The ambush is the third to be recorded in recent times in Palawan, the second of which was just barely three weeks ago at the border of barangays Binduyan and Langogan, involving two military trucks that just came back from a log run, and which also wounded two Marines.

Earlier, a ranking military official said the ambushes are being conducted by the NPA to retaliate because of the confiscations of their heavy arms cache at Sitio Naonao, San Vicente in northern Palawan.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=571657