Alert up as NPA rebs kill cop, militiaman

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 27): Alert up as NPA rebs kill cop, militiaman

Military authorities have alerted its force multiplier in North Cotabato and South Cotabato as communist rebels intensified offensives against soft targets.

Capt. Silver Belvis, speaking for the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion based in North Cotabato, said New Peoples Army (NPA) hitmen killed an off-duty militiamen in Barangay Tumanding, Arakan, North Cotabato on Wednesday.

Angelito Lamana, a member of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU), was killed inside his house by rebels under Guerilla Front 53. He was the third CAFGU member killed in Kabacan within the period of five weeks.

Lamana was assigned at a CAFGU detachment in Salasang area in Barangay Tumanding where communist rebels are active in the collection of protection money and revolutionary taxes.

“He was hog-tied before he was shot dead,” Belvis said.

On Sept. 20, the rebels also killed CAFGU member Joel Batawan in an ambush in Barangay Santo Niño, also in Arakan.

Moreover, communist rebels shot dead three days earlier Jeffrey Bitonio, also a CAFGU member, in Barangay Anapolon, Arakan.

Police are also looking in the possibility that the NPA is behind the murder of Police Officer 2 Charlie Liva in Tupi, South Cotabato on Thursday.

Sr. Supt. Franklin Alverto, provincial police director, said that Liva was driving his motorbike going to Gen. Santos City when gunmen, in a separate motorbike, shot him in the head and body along the highway in Tupi town.

Earlier, the NPAs said it would launch tactical offensives against law enforcement personnel after talks between the government and CPP/NPA bogged down.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php/articles/1014104