NPAs torch 2 passenger vans in Iloilo

ILOILO CITY – Combined military and police forces are pursuing a group of armed men suspected to be New People’s Army rebels who torched two passenger vans in Miag-ao town yesterday morning.

“Hot pursuit operations are ongoing,” Iloilo police director, Senior. Superintendent Ricardo de la Paz told The STAR when interviewed by phone yesterday afternoon, six hours after the incident. Troops from the Army’s 12th Infantry Battalion and the police’s 606th and 607th Provincial Mobile Groups are hunting down the suspects, he said.

De la Paz, however, refrained from confirming whether those involved were indeed NPA rebels. Police also have yet no motive behind the attack.

The attack comes five days before a unilateral ceasefire by the NPA begins Dec. 24.

According to initial police investigation, 20 armed men wearing fatigue uniforms and pretending to be members of the military boarded two Susie Stars van at around 8 a.m. It was not yet known whether the vans were from San Jose, Antique province or Iloilo City. Susie Stars services the route from Iloilo City to San Jose in Antique province.

They instructed the drivers to proceed to Barangay San Jose, a mountainous area about eight kilometers from the town proper, De la Paz said. Upon reaching Uyahoy River, the armed men ordered the drivers to alight the van before torching the vehicles.

The two drivers, whose identities were not yet available as of presstime, were not harmed. Immediately after setting the vans on fire, the armed men fled toward the direction of Barangay Tigmalapad, also in Miag-ao.

The two vans were destroyed. Authorities responding to the incident recovered an improvised explosive device a few meters from the torched vans, De la Paz said. Explosive experts have already been deployed to secure the IED.