NPA raids Naga City police outpost; 2 dead

NAGA CITY — A policeman and a New People’s Army (NPA) rebel were killed during a firefight when a band of rebels attacked a police detachment in Barangay Carolina here yesterday morning.

Superintendent Francisco Peñaflor, Naga City police chief, identified the slain policeman as SPO2 Placido Morales Jr. The slain NPA guerrilla remains unidentified.

Peñaflor said about 30 NPA rebels on board two passenger jeepneys without license plates suddenly stopped at the police Kababayan Center in Barangay Carolina, about two and a half kilometers west of the city proper, and immediately fired at the three policemen manning the detachment. A 30-minute exchange of gunfire ensued.

Despite being outnumbered, Morales’ two colleagues shot it out with the rebels and rejected their call for them to surrender.

When the rebels saw one of their comrades fatally hit, they immediately withdrew, one group scampering toward Milaor and the other toward Camaligan town, Peñaflor said.

City policemen, backed up by members of the 504th Police Provincial Mobile Group, immediately conducted a hot pursuit of the NPA raiders, who reportedly belong to Guerrilla Front 74.

Last Friday, communist guerrillas also killed a policeman and five other people in an ambush in the Masbate town of Baleno, about 30 kilometers from Masbate City.

The rebels detonated a land mine and opened fire on a passenger jeepney on the national highway in Barangay Lagta, killing SPO2 Jesus Huelva, 47; pro-government militiamen Marlon Mingoy, 29; Ruben Abuedo, 41, and Nestor Lancitas, 47, all security officers of the Baleno mayor; jeepney driver Jonathan Virtusio; and Jay Sanchez, Baleno’s assistant budget officer.

Two others were wounded in the attack.

Huelva’s group was on their way to investigate a report that a certain Wincil Esquinola, a retired policeman, was killed by rebels inside his residence that morning. The report, however, apparently turned out to be a bait. — With Cet Dematera