NPA raiders of cop outpost high on drugs?

The 30 heavily armed New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who attacked a police detachment Friday in Pagdilao, Quezon which left a policeman dead and another wounded, are youngsters and appeared to be under the influence of illegal drugs.

Witnesses told Superintendent Roberto Rosales, Quezon PNP provincial director that the raiders were young and could have been drugged because they kept on advancing despite the heavy volume of fire coming from the policemen manning the detachment.

"The communist rebels appeared to be using new recruits to stage attacks," said Rosales in a telephone interview.

Rosales said the amazon whose body was left behind by her withdrawing comrades was identified as a certain Nancy. She was believed to be 18 years old and was armed with a caliber .38 revolver. The police recovered a white substance inside the amazon’s pocket which Rosales suspects to be metaphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu.

The raiders belongs to the Narra and Kamagong units of the Sandatahang Yunit Pampropaganda (SYP) operating in Quezon, said the Quezon PNP director.

Rosales said combined police and Army units, backed up by helicopter gunships and two V-150 armored vehicles, are now hot on the trail of some 30 NPA rebels who killed SPO1 Nestor Oreli and wounded SPO1 Alejandro Sario.

The rebels took along in their escape Oreli’s M-16 Armalite assault rifle. The raiders were last sighted at the tri-boundary of Tayabas, Mauban and Pagdilao towns. They broke into small groups to evade pursuing government troopers, witneses said.

Meanwhile, Rosales claimed they recovered a dump truck and an Isuzu Elf which the NPA rebels commandeered at gunpoint some three kilometers away from the detachment before they staged the attack at 4:30 p.m Friday.

The drivers of the two vehicles are now undergoing tactical interrogation, said Rosales.

Oreli was seated at the entrance of the detachment when the NPA rebels arrived and immediately opened fire. He was hit in the head and the back in the first volley of gunfire.

His five other policemen companions, although outnumbered, engaged the attacking communist rebels in a fierce firefight until reinforcement arrived. — Non Alquitran