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Thursday, March 08, 2007
Suspected communist rebels kill 2 police, village official (3:55 p.m.)
MANILA -- Suspected communist rebels fatally shot two police officers in the southern Philippines and a village official in the country's east, authorities said Thursday.
Two officers were eating at a restaurant in remote Lianga town in Surigao del Sur province on Wednesday when New People's Army guerrillas burst in and shot them, regional police chief Antonio Nanas said.
The police officers died on the spot, and the attackers ran away, stealing with the officers' M-16 rifles and pistols, Nanas said.
"We denounce this rebel atrocity. My men were noncombatants and were merely involved in keeping peace and order in the town," he said. Lianga lies about 850 kilometers (530 miles) southeast of the capital Manila.
Separately in Dolores town, Eastern Samar province, about 600 kilometers (375 miles) southeast of Manila, five suspected NPA rebels forced a village official to go with them to a nearby forest, where they shot him dead, Chief Superintendent Eliseo de la Paz said.
De la Paz said the victim had criticized rebel extortion. The rebels collect "revolutionary taxes" from businesses and ordinary civilians - often at gunpoint - to sustain their near four-decade armed struggle.
Armed Forces Chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said earlier this week that the government would likely officially declare the NPA a terrorist organization, in line with a new anti-terrorism law.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales told reporters Thursday that communist rebels were training snipers to assassinate President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other government officials.
"They are training a group of assassins... snipers," Gonzales said. "They will do this to me and the president, but I am an easier target."
Gonzales, a staunch critic of the communist movement, has made similar comments before but offered no evidence.
Last month, he said the rebels were plotting to assassinate several prominent political figures - including former President Joseph Estrada - to destabilize the government. Estrada has been under house arrest since he was toppled in 2001.
The underground Communist Party and the NPA are already included on US and European lists of terror groups.
The 7,200-strong rebels broke off peace talks with the government in 2004, and the military says it wants to defeat them off by 2010. (AP) |
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