Six rebels charged for attack on Nueva Ecija cellsite

ZARAGOZA, Nueva Ecija — Police have filed charges of arson and grave threats against a local New People’s Army (NPA) leader and five of his men for the attack on the Globe Telecom cellsite here last month.

Senior Superintendent Luisito Palmera, provincial police director, said the case lodged with the Zaragoza Municipal Trial Court named Ka Adrian, team leader of the NPA’s Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda, and five other members of the Tarlac Provincial Party Committee as respondents.

Police asked that the names of Ka Adrian’s five comrades be kept under wraps pending their arrests.

At least four NPA guerrillas attempted to enter the Globe Telecom cellsite compound in Barangay Sto. Rosario last Jan. 15, but failed. They instead doused gasoline on two airconditioning units on the building’s wall and fled as security guards called for help.

The attack came almost at the same time as eight men in military jackets and brandishing M-16 rifles, torched the Globe Telecom facility in Barangay San Isidro, La Paz, Tarlac, some three kilometers away, destroying P15 million worth of equipment.

Barely 13 months prior to the attacks, some 50 suspected NPA rebels torched the facilities of Smart Communications in the Science City of Muñoz, also in Nueva Ecija, Sta. Ignacia town in Tarlac and Rosales in Pangasinan, and of Globe Telecom’s in Abucay, Bataan, and Piltel’s in Lubao, Pampanga.

Chief Inspector Rhoderick Armamento, provincial police intelligence and investigation chief, said the Jan. 15 attack here was averted when residents, led by barangay chairman Narciso Aguilar, rushed to the site when security guard Jojit Alviz called for their help.