4 guards killed in NPA farm raid

Communist rebels opened fire at security guards patrolling a private farm in Bukidnon yesterday, killing four and wounding two others, then escaping with their rifles, police said.

Chief Superintendent Dante Tejada said the rebels also used an improvised explosive device in the attack near Quezon town.

In Passi City, Iloilo, meanwhile, at least 10 suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas tried — but failed — to overrun a police outpost before dawn yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Cornelio Defensor, provincial deputy police director, said the policemen and barangay tanods manning the community police action center in Barangay Aglalana shot it out with the insurgents.

The rebels, who have waged a Maoist insurgency for the last 34 years, have attacked businesses that refuse to pay "revolutionary taxes."

In the past months, the rebels have destroyed at least seven communication towers belonging to cellular phone companies.

The rebels, who are on a United States list of terrorist organizations, suspended peace talks last year, saying the Philippine government has not done enough to remove them from the list. — AP and Ronilo Ladrido Pamonag