Police foil attempt to destroy cell site

Suspected communist guerrillas tried to burn a cellular telephone transmission tower in Laguna but were repulsed by police, an official said yesterday.

Two guards hid and called police when about a dozen New People’s Army rebels, including a woman, barged into the telecommunications compound in Liliw town in Laguna Sunday night, regional police director Enrique Galang said.

The security guards were identified as Beato Rocres Jr., 47 and Joselito Purio, who managed to escape after sensing they were outnumbered by the rebels. They went immediately to the police station to report the incident.

The rebels had already destroyed a power generator of Globe Telecom in Barangay Ilayang Taykin when police arrived and briefly clashed with the guerrillas, who fled under cover of darkness toward the coconut and banana plantations of Majayjay. Police had no casualties, Galang told dzRH radio.

The guerrillas left behind a van and were being pursued by police and army troops in Laguna, a mountainous resort province where the guerrillas are active, Galang said.

The rapid police response was a result of faster communications by police officials and owners of telecommunications companies and business establishments, arranged during a recent conference, he said.

The guerrillas, who have been waging a Marxist rebellion since the late 1960s, maintain strong rural bases south of Manila where many industrial estates and factories are located.

Another Globe telecommunications tower was damaged 11 days ago by the guerrillas in Barangay Masin, Candelaria, in the nearby province of Quezon, where they maintain mountain strongholds, to divert the attention of troops battling a group of rebels, Galang said.

The US government and European countries have included the New People’s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines on a list of terrorist groups.

They urged governments to identify and cut support to the guerrillas, who responded by intensifying attacks and threatening to permanently withdraw from already-stalled peace talks with the Philippine government. – Arnel Ozaeta, Paolo Romero