Soldier killed, 13 hurt as Reds attack PAF engineers

LEGAZPI CITY — An Air Force sergeant was killed and 13 other men were wounded when communist guerrillas ambushed engineers and construction personnel of the 355th Air Engineering Wing who had just built a schoolbuilding in Uson, Masbate yesterday morning.

Col. Ramon Santos, commanding officer of the Army’s 901st Infantry Brigade based in Daraga, Albay, said the PAF men were on their way back to their camp in Uson town, about 35 kilometers southeast of Masbate City, when they were waylaid in Barangay Del Carmen.

Santos said they had just come from Barangay Cabrera in Dimasalang town where they constructed a schoolhouse under President Arroyo’s schoolbuilding project in the island-province.

Some 60 NPA guerrillas fired at the Air Force personnel as their M-35 truck cruised the highway in Sitio Lumintao.

The lone fatality, T/Sgt. Alex Yesta, died while he was being treated at the Dimasalang District Hospital.

Some of the wounded were identified as Sgts. Enrique Mallorca, Eddie Mendoza, Pacisto Bellero and a certain Francisco, Airman First Class Michael Barosa, Airmen Ho Villaver, Soliman Contreras and Gilbert Raza, and civilian employee Efren Cortes. Santos declared them in stable condition.

The Air Force engineering contingent has been in Masbate since last Dec. 3 to build schoolbuildings in different communities, particularly in Barangays Villa Ganaz, Kawayan and Sta. Cruz, all in Placer town.

"The projects are 100 percent finished and are scheduled for inauguration," Santos said.

The soldiers shot it out with the insurgents for 15 minutes, forcing them to withdraw toward Barangay Balocaue. Senior Superintendent Romeo Mapalo, Masbate police director, said some rebels were wounded in the gunbattle.

Maj. Jose Broso, Southern Luzon commander of the Civil Relations Group, said the NPA ambushers were led by one Rogelio Suzon, of the Komite sa Larangan 83 South. The NPA command in Masbate is headed by one Rogelio Torres.

"We are condemning them for such an act of treachery and cowardice," he said.

For his part, Lt. Gen. Nestor Santillan, PAF commanding general, said, "How could this band of so-called ideologues say that they are for the people when all they do is prevent development from happening in areas where it is most needed? They are nothing but criminals and extortionists masquerading as ideologues."

The attack came five days after soldiers overran an NPA camp in Poblacion Batuan on Ticao Island.

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969. — With reports from Sandy Araneta, Christina Mendez