NPA rebels attack troops guarding poll machines in South

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 7, 2010) – Communist insurgents on Friday opened fire on government troops guarding polling machines in the southern Philippines, wounding two infantrymen, officials said.

Officials said New People’s Army insurgents attacked the soldiers in the village of Taguibo in Davao Oriental’s Mati town where security forces were guarding the precinct count optical scan machines which will be used in the country’s first automated elections on Monday.

“The two wounded soldiers were rushed to hospital,” said Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.

Garcia said troops were pursuing the attackers. “This is another terror act of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front. They are sowing terror to prevent people from freely exercising their right to vote. This is hooliganism at its worst.
While soldiers are sacrificing to safeguard the election process, these terrorists breed anarchy to the detriment of the Filipino people,” he said.

On Thursday, insurgents also bombed a truck of troops escorting a convoy delivering precinct count optical scanner machines in Palanas town in Masbate province in the Bicol region, although no was injured or killed in the roadside attack.

The NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines while the National Democratic Front is the organization’s political arm. The Communist Party of the Philippines is fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)