Gov’t troops pursue NPA rebs that attack police station in Misamis Occidental

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=12&sid=&nid=12&rid=597037

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Dec. 15 (PNA) -- The military have launched pursuit operation against a group of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who attacked early Saturday the police station in the municipality of Don Victoriano Chiongbian, Misamis Occidental.

Army’s 55th Infantry Battalion commander Lt. Col. Rommel Almaria has deployed troops from the battalion’s Alpha Company to pursue the NPA rebels who fled towards the hinterlands of Josefina town in Zamboanga del Sur after attacking the police station.

Almaria disclosed Sunday that the Alpha Company troops had initially clashed with the fleeing NPA rebels around 6 a.m. Saturday, an hour after the insurgents attacked the police station, when the troops established a blocking position.

Almaria said the NPA rebels have set off during the firefight an improvised bomb fashioned out as a landmine but failed to inflict death injury to the pursuing troops.

He said the NPA rebels splintered into smaller groups as they continue to flee to divide the focus of the pursuing troops.

He said the NPA rebels clad in fatigue uniforms attacked the police station of Don Victoriano Chiongbian around 5 a.m. Saturday.

He said the rebels disarmed the policemen on duty and emptied the armory of a one caliber 60 machinegun, an M-203 grenade launcher, seven M-16 Armalite rifles, nine handguns and several ammunitions of different caliber.

The attack was in retaliation to the death of a notorious NPA leader, Henry Celajes alias Ka Jong-Jong, who was killed in a clash last September in Barangay Gala, Tudela, Misamis Occidental, according to Almaria.

Almaria said the death of Celajes is a big loss to the NPA movement since the slain leader is the deputy secretary of the NPA’s Western Mindanao Regional Party Committee (WMRPC) based in Misamis Occidental.

Almaria said Celajes was responsible for the burning of several heavy equipments of construction firms undertaking development projects of the government, burning of poultry farms as well as extortion activities in the areas of Misamis Occidental and Zamboanga Peninsula. (PNA)
CTB/TPG/HIROHITO D. CADION/PJN