Surigao Sur policemen repulse NPA attackers

CAMP RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ, Libertad, Butuan City, Philippines  – Security forces repulsed some 30 communist rebels who attacked the municipal police station in Lianga, Surigao del Sur yesterday morning, killing one insurgent and wounding another.

The police station is located within the compound of the Lianga municipal hall in the town proper.

Lianga is about 110 kilometers away from Butuan City, Caraga’s regional center.

Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Rafal, Caraga police director, said the Lianga policemen, though outnumbered, managed to repulse the insurgents in the firefight that lasted for more an hour.

In a related development, New People’s Army (NPA) rebels burned a poultry farmhouse in Libmanan, Camarines Sur on Wednesday after its owner refused to give in to their extortion demands, the military said yesterday.

“The incident happened after the owner, Allan Olivan, continuously refused to pay the extortion demands of the NPA rebels,” Maj. Angelo Guzman, spokesman of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said in a statement.

Guzman said armed men woke up workers of the farmhouse and ordered them to lie on the ground. They then robbed the caretakers of their money, mobile phones, and other belongings.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Cruz, commander of the 42nd Infantry Battalion, said the insurgents sent five of their comrades to a nearby Army detachment to prevent soldiers from responding to the incident.

The five rebels harassed the Army troops so their companions could burn the poultry farmhouse. No casualty was reported on both sides.

“The real motive of the incident is arson as it is impossible for the NPA rebels to overrun the properly fortified and defensive detachment,” Guzman said.

Maj. Gen. Josue Gaverza Jr., commander of 9th ID, ordered the Army’s 902nd Infantry Brigade to alert all nearby Army detachments to pursue those behind the incident.

The Bicol region, where Camarines Sur is located, is one of the areas with huge concentration of NPA troops. Other areas heavily influenced by the insurgents are Samar, Leyte, Negros and the Davao region.

Latest military data show that the communists extorted more than P95 million in 2010 and P1.5 billion since 1998 from investors and politicians.

Military officials said the NPA raised about P136 million in 2009 through the collection of so-called “revolutionary taxes.”

Mining firms, logging companies and plantations are said to be the usual targets of the NPA’s extortion activities.    – With Alexis Romero