NPAs kill 2 Surigao Sur cops, Samar b’gay exec

BUTUAN CITY – Suspected communist rebels gunned down two police officers in Surigao del Sur and a village official in Eastern Samar, authorities said yesterday.

The two policemen – SPO1 Roque Lobo and PO2 Edmund Aparta – were eating in a restaurant in Lianga, Surigao del Sur Wednesday when three New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas burst in and shot them, Senior Superintendent Alex Ga, provincial police director, said.

The police officers died on the spot, and the attackers escaped on a motorcycle, carting away the officers’ M-16 rifle and two caliber .45 pistols, Nanas said.

"We denounce this rebel atrocity. My men were non-combatants and were merely involved in keeping peace and order in the town," said Chief Superintendent Antonio Nanas, regional police director.

Separately, in Dolores, Eastern Samar, five suspected NPA rebels forced a village official to go with them to a nearby forest where they shot him dead, Chief Superintendent Eliseo de la Paz, Eastern Visayas police director, said.

De la Paz said the victim had criticized rebel extortion. The rebels collect "revolutionary taxes" from businesses and ordinary civilians – often at gunpoint – to sustain their armed struggle.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said earlier this week that the government would likely officially declare the NPA a terrorist organization, in line with a new anti-terrorism law.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales told reporters yesterday that communist rebels were training snipers to assassinate President Arroyo and other government officials.

"They are training a group of assassins... snipers," Gonzales said. "They will do this to me and the President, but I am an easier target."

Gonzales, a staunch critic of the communist movement, has made similar comments before but offered no evidence.

Last month, he said the rebels were plotting to assassinate several prominent political figures – including former President Joseph Estrada – to destabilize the government. Estrada has been under house arrest since he was toppled in 2001.

The underground Communist Party and the NPA are on US and European lists of terror groups.

The rebels broke off peace talks with the government in 2004, and the military said it wants to defeat them by 2010. – Ben Serrano and AP