NPA raids Mindoro contractor's compound

Suspected New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas swooped down on the compound of a private construction company in Mindoro Occidental last Wednesday, torching a crane and a stack of tires and carting away handheld radios, the military said yesterday.

According to belated reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo, 14 heavily armed rebels raided the compound of Jopel Construction Co. in Sitio Siruban, Barangay Batong Buhay in Sablayan town at about 8 p.m.

They then doused the crane and pile of tires with gasoline and set them ablaze. They took two handheld radios from the construction firm's offices before fleeing.

The Sablayan police have launched pursuit operations against the NPA attackers, the reports said.

Police and military units around the country have been placed on alert because the NPA may intensify its attacks on government and private installations as its anniversary on March 26 nears.

Philippine National Police chief Deputy Director General Panfilo Lacson earlier had ordered the beefing up of intelligence gathering in the Central Visayas following the ambush by the NPA of a group of soldiers and militiamen in Bohol last Thursday.

Lacson admitted that the police did not receive prior intelligence information about the ambush which left six soldiers and four militiamen dead.

In another development, an NPA commander, Edwin Tuscana, commanding officer of the Sandatahang Yunit Pampropaganda Uno in eastern Cagayan, was killed in a two-hour clash with government troops last Saturday.

Reports said elements of the 41st Infantry Battalion were conducting a security patrol in Barangay Dalaoig, Alcala, Cagayan when they encountered Tuscana's group.

The soldiers captured three rebels, identified as Melanie Tumaning, Avelino Asuncion and Jerry Paat, and recovered two M-16 rifles, an M203 grenade launcher, an M-14 rifle, a caliber .45 pistol, six M-14 magazines, marijuana leaves and subversive documents at the scene of the firefight, the reports said.

Army soldiers have intensified their patrols in remote barangays in the Cagayan towns of Alcala and Baggao where the rebels have beefed up their extortion and recruitment activities.

Meanwhile, elements of the 403rd Infantry Battalion overran two NPA camps in Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon yesterday.

The rebels abandoned the camps as the soldiers closed in. Follow-up operations led to the arrest of seven rebels. - With Lino de la Cruz