NPA Rebels Raid Police Base In Southern Philippines

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 23 Sept) - Communist insurgents raided Sunday a police base and carted away assorted weapons in the southern Philippines, military reports said.

Reports said dozens of New People’s Army gunmen stormed the base in the town of Cantilan in Surigao del Sur province and disarmed policemen before ransacking the place.

It said the rebels fled on trucks after the raid and leaving behind stunned policemen. There were no reports of firefight. Security forces were sent to the town to help policemen hunt down the rebels.

Last week, NPA rebels also stormed a veneer factory in Compostela Valley province and killed one militiaman after he tried to attack the raiders.

The rebels, from the NPA's Armando Dumandan Command, carted four automatic rifles and a handgun during the raid. The militias are working for the Li Chiang Veneer Plant in Montevista town.

The NPA branded the firm as “despotic” and accused it of actively supporting the military operations against innocent farmers in the town.

“The NPA disarming operation was a punitive action against the company which uses its goons to harass and intimidate residents,” Marcella Valiente, of the Armando Dumandan Command, said.

The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been fighting for decades to establish a Maoist state in the country.

The Philippine government opened peace talks with the rebels, but the negotiations collapsed in 2004 after the United States listed the CPP and the NPA and its political arm, the National Democratic Front, as foreign terrorist organization on Manila’s prodding. (Mindanao Examiner)