Another NPA-RHB clash leaves 5 dead

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — The Bataan police reported another clash between rival communist groups — the New People’s Army (NPA) and the breakaway Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB) — this time over the collection of "revolutionary taxes."

This developed as at least three NPA guerrillas and a policeman were killed in a gunbattle in Masbate last Dec. 25.

Some 25 NPA fighters opened fire on the house of the policeman, Edwin Epiloy, who, together with a policeman-relative, traded shots with the rebels, three of whom were killed. Epiloy died from multiple bullet wounds, and his wife was wounded.

Meanwhile, NPA guerrillas, according to reports reaching Camp Crame, swooped down on a police outpost manned by a lone policeman in Barangay Sabang, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. They fled with the lawman’s M-16 rifle.

The attack was the first ever staged by the NPA since it set up a unit of the Lucio de Guzman Command in the island-province last year.

Senior Superintendent Perfecto Palad, Bataan police director, said four NPA rebels and one RHB guerrilla were killed in the recent gunfight in Barangay Bakong, Hermosa town.

The rival groups encountered each other while collecting "taxes" from residents in the community.

Palad, quoting villagers, said the NPA rebels, belonging to the Lino Blas Command, carried the bodies of their slain comrades. The slain RHB member was buried in a cemetery in Samal town.

The rivalry between the NPA and the RHB in Central Luzon has mounted in recent weeks, especially after the Dec. 2 killing of Bartolome Quizon, alias Ka JoeBay, in his home in Mexico, Pampanga.