It was the second such incident to happen this month in Central Luzon.
Lieutenant Colonel Preme Monta, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) based at Camp Gen. Servillano Aquino in this city, said the rebels this time burned a bus from Santrans in Barangay Caturay, near the boundary of Gerona and Paniqui, Tarlac shortly after midnight last Saturday.
Monta said the bus, with body number 5715, was en route to Pangasinan from Metro Manila and had 30 passengers, some of which happened to be members of the NPA.
Based on his testimony to investigating authorities, Carlito Salas, the bus driver, said that upon reaching Barangay Caturay along the MacArthur Highway, he noticed some men along the road beaming flashlights towards them - a signal, Monta said, that the rebels wanted to board the vehicle.
At that instance, Salas continued, one of the passengers told him to stop the bus. Another then announced to the other passengers that they were NPA rebels.
"Huwag kayong matakot, kailangan lang naming ang bus (Don’t beafraid, we just only need the bus)," the passengers quoted the unidentifiedrebel as saying. "Matigas kasi ang ulo ng may-ari. Ayaw magbayad ng buwissa rebolusyonaryong gobyerno ng bayan (Its owner is so stubborn. They would not pay their taxes to the people’s revolutionary government)."
The passengers were then told to put off their mobile phones and ordered to get off the bus.
Monta said witnesses further told investigators that there were about 20 other suspected rebels waiting outside the bus, some of whom carried pails of gasoline, which they poured on the vehicle before setting it on fire.
Afterwards, the NPA rebels reportedly fled toward the east.
The insurgents involved in the attack on the bus firm allegedly belonged to the Kilusang Larangang Gerilya-Yunit Oscar Estrada led by Marfil galang, one of the rebel groups operating in the province.
Monta disclosed that combined police and military agents are now conducting pursuit operations against the fleeing communist guerillas.