NPAs attack Palawan police station, killing cop and hurting several others

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 12): NPAs attack Palawan police station, killing cop and hurting several others

Three days after a small group of communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels torched a backhoe owned by a mining firm in southern Palawan town of Sofronio Española, a band of 20 armed men, also believed to be NPA members, attacked the Roxas municipal police station here Wednesday morning, killing a policeman and injuring several others. The attackers, clad in fatigue uniforms and armed with short and high-powered firearms, came aboard two UV Express shuttle vans, according to municipal government spokesperson Rose Paguia.

The group, who initially introduced themselves as members of the Marines, alighted and entered the Municipal PNP Station, which is just several meters away from the Roxas Municipal Building, a bus and jeepney terminal station, and a gymnasium filled with teachers who are on training, at about 10:30 a.m., Paguia said. The armed men claimed they would just turn over a detainee. “They alighted and entered the front desk where they told the policeman assigned there that they will just turn over a detainee. Then they started entering the Admin Office – they entered all the other rooms. One of the policemen was approached by a rebel to take his M16, but the policeman refused to give it. Then firefight ensued inside the station,” Paguia said.

 She said that after the armed rebels had collected the guns at the municipal police station, they fled while yelling they were members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA). “They said the policemen should not fight them because they are members of the CPP-NPA. They are in full battle gear, and they also took with them the cellphone for the municipal hotline of the PNP,” she said.  Lt. Ann Adele Caluya, spokesperson of the Western Command (WESCOM) told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that a joint pursuit operation is now being conducted by the Provincial Police Office (PPO) and troops of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 against the armed rebels for killing Police Officer Monisito Rabang, and injuring a few others. “We are still verifying raw reports from the field. The Marine Brigade 3, which is on alert since Sunday after the torching of a backhoe in southern Palawan is now in the area for a pursuit operation with the provincial police,” Caluya said.

The WESCOM has been on heightened alert since a group of six armed rebels were reported to have torched a backhoe in the southern Palawan town of Sofronio Española last Sunday owned by Citi Nickel Mining and Development Corp. (CNMDC). Asked if the attack may have something to do with December being the graduation month for the CPP-NPA’s new recruits, Caluya said as far as WESCOM is concerned, it has not received any report of new recruits being trained and are graduating in Palawan. “What we are monitoring are old members of the CPP-NPA, we have no reports that there are new recruits who trained in Palawan and are now graduating,” she said, adding they are now verifying other reports related to the attack in Roxas and the Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban is on top of the situation.

Road blocks are now being set up in the town of Roxas starting from Barangay Macarascas, where a Marine detachment is located, Caluya furthered. An S-76 Sikoursky chopper and an OV-10 Bronco of the 570th Composite Tactical Wing have been dispatched too, to conduct aerial reconnaissance flights in support to the pursuit operations. “The municipal station that was attacked is 16 kilometers far from the Marine detachment of MBLT 4, whose troops are now responding to the situation,” she said. Roxas is a municipality located along the eastern shoreline of the island of Palawan. The municipality comprises of barangays or towns running from South to North from Tinitian to Ilian.

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