Rebels own up police station raid

CATBALOGAN CITY, Philippines — The National Democratic Front in Eastern Visayas (NDF-EV) commended the red  fighters belonging to the CPP-NPA Efren Martires Command and Sergio Lobina Command for the raid it conducted Monday evening at the police station of Balangkayan town in Eastern Samar.

NDF-EV spokesperson Father Santiago Salas informed that the joint operation did not cost them anything because not a single shot was fired, yet they were able to cart away nine M16 Armalite rifles and several hand guns with various ammunitions, including two laptop computers and other equipment.

Salas said: “We also praise the NPA fighters for their discipline, as well as proving once more that the enemy forces (policemen on duty) who were captured received lenient treatment and were released unharmed.”

The Balangkayan raid was part of the offensive call of the underground movement for a “Revolution, not Elections,” Salas said, adding that the CPP-NPA-NDF will launch more tactical offensives in Eastern Samar, during the election period and beyond.

“The NPA units can launch annihilative offenses to seize weapons and destroy the enemy, such as disarming police stations as shown on Monday’s Balangkayan raid, or initiate ambush attack on vulnerable military units on operations, or raid military and para-military detachments,” Salas said.

The call for revolution and not elections, Salas said, was due to what they (rebels) perceived as Philippine Election Crisis, alleging that all the leading presidential candidates are subservient to the US and not to the people.

Nothing will change with the present condition of the Filipinos, as the candidates reportedly have all signified to pursue Aquino’s “palliative, deceptive and neoliberal solutions,” said Salas.

“Thus, it is correct for the NPA to launch offensives during the election period and let the guns of the Red Fighters reverberate the call for ‘Revolution, not Elections,’” Salas explained.

On the other hand, Eastern Samar Police Provincial Office Director, Senior Superintendent Romeo Campomanes told The Freeman that, after the Balangkayan raid, all police stations in the province were alerted to secure their respective areas to avoid similar incidents.

Campomanes also assured the public that the over-all situation of the province, relative to internal peace and security, was still at manageable level, and that the police are ready to protect the province from enemy threat.

The Balangkayan Police Station was raided Monday evening by about 20 communist rebels who arrived on-board two hijacked vans of Duptours Shuttle Service.

After the incident, the Police Regional Office-8 relieved the Balangkayan Police chief and six other policemen for being out from their station even if they were supposed to be on-duty at the time. —(FREEMAN)