PNP condemns rebel attack in Samar

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 11, 2020): PNP condemns rebel attack in Samar (By Sarwell Meniano)

WAYLAID. The body of a police officer inside a police car after an attack by suspected communist rebels in Marabut, Samar on Thursday (Dec. 10, 2020). The Philippine National Police has denounced the attack that happened while the world was marking International Human Rights Day. (Contributed photo)

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has condemned the ambush perpetrated by suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) that killed a police officer and wounded a detainee.

“The PNP deeply condemns this horrendous attack made by the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). A communist terrorist group who atrociously ambushed the personnel of Marabut police station,” the PNP Samar provincial office said in a statement issued Thursday night.

The PNP-Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB) in Region 8 also denounced the attack that happened while the world was marking International Human Rights Day.

“This act of the communist terrorist group is a clear violation of human rights. Let us not support the NPA!” RFMB said in a separate statement.

Killed during the attack along a national road in Logero village, Marabut town was Cpl. Lawrence Hembra while Nestor Lumagpas Jr., a detainee under police custody, was wounded.

Marabut town police chief, Lt. Fernando Calabria Jr., said the victims were heading back to the police station after a court appearance in Basey town when waylaid by several gunmen in Logero village around 1 p.m.

Hembra was one of the three police officers who escorted Lumagpas.

The PNP has yet to conclude if the armed rebels detonated a landmine during the ambush.

The NPA, which has been waging a five-decade armed struggle against the government, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1124450