NPA admits burning 2 buses in Cebu

CEBU CITY — The New People’s Army (NPA) has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday burning of two passenger buses in two northern towns of Cebu.

The provincial police said it is now preparing to file arson charges against NPA members involved in the torching of the D’ Rough Riders buses early Sunday morning in Barangay Dalid, Tabuelan town and in Barangay Kinawahan, San Remegio.

Silvino Clamucha, spokesman of the NPA unit operating in Central Visayas, said in a radio interview that members of the NPA’s Central Visayas Front II were responsible for the burning.

Clamucha admitted that the NPA had asked the owner of D’ Rough Riders to pay a "revolutionary tax" to the underground movement.

But he said the NPA decided to burn the buses because of the alleged abuses the management of the bus company had committed.

He said that the bus company has failed to indemnify the families of victims who were killed or injured by D’ Rough Riders buses.

Clamucha said that since June last year, the NPA has been sending notices to the bus company to negotiate with the victims’ families, but its management ignored them.

He warned the management of D’ Rough Riders of more attacks on their buses if they would not relent.

Clamucha and a certain Edgardo Jamil, said to be the team leader of Front II, will be included in the charge sheet being prepared by the Cebu police, according to provincial police director Jose Antonio Salvacion.

In other developments, three Army soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in separate clashes with NPA rebels in Samar and Davao del Norte, the military said.

About 60 guerrillas attacked the compound of the Alson Security Force in Sitio Igang, Barangay Sto. Niño in Talaingod, Davao del Norte Monday morning.

Killed in the 15-minute firefight was Cpl. Joseph Liclican, and wounded were 2Lt. Fernando Payapaya and Private First Classmen Edwin Catalan, Gilbert Baculi and Engracio Tabuano, all of the 72nd Infantry Battalion, and an unidentified civilian.

In Samar, two soldiers were killed and a militiaman was wounded in an encounter with NPA rebels in Barangay Madalunot, Pinamacdao town at about 5:30 a.m. yesterday. — Freeman News Service, Ricky Bautista, Roel Pareño, Miriam Garcia Desacada and Paolo Romero