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Friday, May 27, 2005
Communist group denies hand in bus hijacking
By Ryan Rosauro
OZAMIZ CITY -- The armed men who hijacked a bus and took the passengers hostage were plain criminals and not members of the communist New People's Army (NPA), a spokesman of the group said Thursday.
Ismael Marte of the NPA Western Mindanao regional command said in a radio interview said the 24-hour hostage drama did not bear the imprint of the communist movement, as it was done not in furtherance of the group's cause.
He said the three men were probably members of a criminal group based in a twon in Misamis Occidental.
He said the hijacking and hostage taking were done with the intention of destroying the image of the communist movement.
Communist rebels are now pursuing the hostage takers so they could be brought before the "people's court," he added.
Suspicions of police that the three men were communist guerillas grew after they fled to an NPA-infested area.
Superintendent Mario Yanga, Misamis Occidental provincial police director, said the men were involved in highway and bank robberies and could be the same ones who robbed passengers of a Rural Transit bus bound for Dipolog City last week.
Last resort
Bishop Emmanuel Cabajar of the Diocese of Pagadian City, who drove the armed men to the location they demanded, said he had no regrets about facilitating the release of the hostages even if it resulted in the hijackers' escape.
He said he used his own vehicle to transport the men.
"I asked them, are you NPA and they replied 'Yes'. I asked them what they have in their bag and they refused to answer. When I pressed them anew the men said this is a business for them," Bishop Cabajar said.
Cabajar is under fire from police authorities for not convincing the armed men to surrender. However, the bishop stands by his actions, saying it had the blessings of the police.
Misamis Occidental Police Director Yanga said a sketch of one of those tagged in a robbery incident seemed to match a description of one of the hostage takers.
The modus operandi was also the same: boarding a bus and taking it to Plaridel town.
Yanga explained the armed men were "forced them to stage the hostage-taking" as a last resort when they saw that the bus was about to stop at a police checkpoint.
The men were armed with grenades, caliber .45 handguns and Uzi machine-gun. They said in radio interviews on Wednesday that they were NPA operatives. (With a report from SC)
(May 27, 2005 issue)
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