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Thursday, February 16, 2006
Mayor claims captors looked like soldiers
By Ben Serrano
Caraga Correspondent
BUTUAN CITY -- Another group of communist rebels raided anew a Picop security personnel bunker midnight Sunday in Sitio Maput, Barangay Doña Carmen, Tagbina, Surigao del Sur.
The incident followed the raid in Lingig, Surigao del Sur where communist rebels in the area emptied the town's police arsenal.
Aside from burning the bunker, the rebels snatched two company owned carbine rifles, handheld radios, antennas, and assorted ammunitions before fleeing towards the mountainous area portion of Rosario, Agusan del Sur.
Military and police reports said, two security guards of wood firm Picop Resources Inc., identified as Alex Magamayo and certain Noyte were disarmed by 30 suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels who arrived in the area shortly before midnight.
The rebels then announced a raid while ordering the guards manning the bunker to yield the firearms, ammunitions, and the handheld radios.
Before the rebels left, they hogtied and gagged the mouth of the security personnel then doused gasoline at the security bunker.
Meanwhile, in Lingig, Surigao del Sur, Mayor Roberto "Jimmy" Luna, who is facing charges to be filed by the Philippine National Police, finally admitted that two of the NPA raiders who held him captive before ransacking the town's police office were wearing Magdalo uniforms with armbands.
Earlier in a recorded interview, Luna told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro the two didn't look like rebels as "they acted snappy" while three or four of the raiders who also do not look as NPA were wearing Magdalo armbands.
Police and even civilian eyewitnesses were standing by near stores fronting Lingig Municipal Hall confirmed Luna's observations.
Relieved Lingig Police Chief, Evelyn Pastolero Frugalidad and 21 police officers shared the same observation that some of the raiders were wearing Magdalo uniforms and armbands.
Frugalidad suspected that the more than 30 fully armed rebels who held Luna captive and raided the police office last February 5 have more than 400 other comrades blocking responding forces of the military and the police.
Last February 5, responding 36th IB Army soldiers from their base camp in Trento, Agusan del Sur were cruising the national highway in Barangay San Roque, Lingig, Surigao del Sur when 50 NPA rebels ambushed the army convoy hurting five troopers.
An Army truck was totally wrecked when the rebels detonated landmines that they planted along national highway.
The NPA said three 36th IB soldiers died in the ambush of which the military denied.
On February 6, troopers unearthed seven active landmines when a farmer accidentally saw protruding metal objects that turned out to be landmines.
Lingig local officials have since then requested President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to install a company size army detachment in the whole of Lingig town for fear of another attack.
(February 15, 2006 issue)
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