Quirino cop slain in NPA raid on outpost

DIFFUN, Quirino - Communist guerrillas attacked a police substation in this town past midnight yesterday, killing the police commander and wounding another policeman.

The assault occurred three days after an intelligence report revealed that armed rebels were sighted in a village near the eastern border of Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya.

Killed was SPO4 Johnny Puguon, who was also a director of the Quirino Electric Cooperative. Wounded was SPO2 Robustiano Dabbay, who is now under close observation at the De Vera's Hospital in Santiago City.

The two were resting after conducting a foot patrol when the rebels attacked them. The guerrillas took their service firearms after riddling them with M-16 Armalite bullets.

The municipal police and the Provincial Mobile Group have launched pursuit operations against the New People's Army (NPA) attackers.

Superintendent Mario Asis, provincial police director, has placed all police stations in the province on red alert.

According to military intelligence reports, top commanders of the NPA's Nueva Vizcaya-Quirino-San Agustin (Isabela) Front decided in a plenum last November to consolidate the Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino Front with the Aurora-Quezon Front whose commander, Gregorio Rosal alias Ka Roger, is ailing.

The reports added that the Isabela Front is now under the command of Noli Libertad, a former journalist.

In other developments:

* A suspected NPA rebel, a certain Ka Nardo, was killed and another guerrilla, Teresita Ancheta, 20, was captured after a brief clash with government troops in Casiguran, Aurora shortly before midnight last Monday, police said.

* The Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita is in for a serious tussle with Tarlac officials who insist that the deployment of a 26-man armed civilian group in the 6,000-hectare sugarcane plantation "is totally unnecessary."

Tarlac City Mayor Gelacio Manalang and other officials have agreed with Tarlac Gov. Jose Yap to request Maj. Gen. Arturo Carillo, commander of the Armed Forces' Northern Luzon Command, to immediately order the withdrawal of the armed group from Hacienda Luisita.

Tarlac Rep. Benigno Aquino III earlier had admitted that it was he who requested Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado for the deployment of the armed civilians to Luisita.

The solon apparently made the request after NPA rebels attacked a unit of the Army's 69th Infantry Battalion at the western tip of Luisita two months ago. Three rebels were killed and three soldiers were wounded in the clash. - With Ric Sapnu, Benjie Villa