Pursuit on for Masbate NPA ambushers

LEGAZPI CITY — Police have launched a hot pursuit for a band of 50 heavily armed New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who killed five policemen and three construction workers in an ambush in Claveria, Masbate last Friday morning.

The attack also left another policeman and two other civilians wounded.

This is the NPA’s second bloody ambush in the region this new year. Last Tuesday, 20 guerrillas waylaid a joint police-Army team in Barangay Bulo in Matnog, Sorsogon, killing Senior Inspector Eduardo Amande Jr., Pfc. Alex Cortez and militiaman Roger de Leon.

"We have identified the (ambush leaders) and the areas where these communist terrorists are hiding," Senior Superintendent Eugenio Alcovindas, Masbate police director, told The STAR yesterday.

Alcovindas said members of the Provincial Mobile Group immediately left Masbate City Friday noon on board motorboats to Burias Island to augment the Claveria police upon learning about the ambush in Sitio San Jose, Barangay Poblacion District 1.

According to Alcovindas, the Claveria policemen were traveling on foot to check the reported presence of armed men in the barangay when they decided to hitch a ride on a passing dump truck owned by the municipal government.

After negotiating two kilometers of rough roads, the dump truck carrying the policemen and construction workers hit a land mine, after which the rebels began firing.

Killed in the attack were PO3s Cerillo Fuentes and Benjie Teñoso, PO1s Noriel Portejos Gracilla, Rommel Leyte Tumblod and Christian Bajar Cabug, and civilians Ricky Salamuding, Glemor Salamuding and Arjay Cadag.

Wounded were PO1 Rolando Valdemoro Laurio Jr., and civilians Glen Garcia and Vicente Tatoy.

Reports said the dump truck was a total wreck following the land mine blast. The rebels carted away a caliber 30 machinegun, two M-14 and four M-16 rifles, and a caliber 9-mm pistol.