Reds burn 2 buses in Batangas

BATANGAS CITY – About 15 to 20 armed men, who introduced themselves as New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, flagged down two air-conditioned buses hired by a petrochemical company and burned them in a secluded area in Batangas City yesterday morning, police said.

Superintendent Rolando Lorenzo, Batangas police director, said the buses were hired by JG Summit Petro Chemicals to bring its employees to and from its plant in Barangay Sinloc this city.

The armed men, brandishing M-16 rifles and wearing fatigue uniforms, brought the vehicles to Barangay Pinamuan in the city’s Ibaba district, poured gasoline on them and fired a rifle grenade that caused a big explosion.

The armed men took the two bus drivers and three employees of the petrochemical firm but later released them.

After flagging down the buses, the rebels told the other employees to run, saying they were only after the vehicles because the company has long failed to pay "revolutionary taxes."

Before fleeing toward Sitio Piit in Barangay Pinamucan, the armed men shouted, "Mga NPA kami (We are NPAs)."

Police probers, however, were verifying reports that the armed men were only retaliating against the bus company, Alps, after one of its drivers fatally sideswiped two of their comrades along the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road recently, Senior Inspector Domingo Baril said.

Police found two rifle grenade caps, a gasoline container and a grenade pin at the arson scene.