Security guards foil NFPC attack

A roving security force of a power barge at the Navotas Fish Port Complex (NFPC) engaged in a shootout and successfully foiled an apparent commando raid on the facility staged by what was feared as either Islamic terrorists or members of the New People’s Army (NPA) early Tuesday morning in waters off the fishport in Navotas.

As of presstime, the local police and the National Capital Region-Maritime Command were conducting separate investigation on the incident to determine the identity of the real perpetrators. Later in the day, however, Northern Police District Office (NPDO) chief Senior Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr. in a phone interview, dismissed fears that the incident involved Muslim terrorists already in Metro Manila. Neither was it staged by NPA cadres, the official said.

"I would like to clarify [earlier] reports that the incident was staged by terrorists or NPAs are not true. From the evidence recovered by the police in the area, two pop soda bottles (Pepsi) of improvised explosives with blasting cords, we suspect that they were illegal fishers who retreated when about to be discovered by the power barge security men on sea patrol," Franco said.