NPA trying to ‘show force’

DINGALAN, Aurora - The New People’s Army (NPA) killed a policeman and a farmer here last weekend in what the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) described as part of its plans to "show force" in the run-up to its 34th anniversary on March 29.

"I have intensified security operations to flush out the NPA guerrillas from their enclaves and thwart their impending tactical offensives planned for their 34th founding anniversary," Nolcom chief Maj. Gen. Alberto Braganza said.

Reports said a 30-man NPA band ambushed farmer Emiliano Cabantug and civilian volunteer Emmanuel Baricas who were on board a banca on their way to buy gasoline for military forces in this town last Sunday.

Cabantug died on the spot, while Baricas was wounded. The banca, which belonged to the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion, sustained 24 bullet holes.

On the same day, two suspected rebels raided a citrus farm here and gunned down SPO3 Hernando Castillo.

Meanwhile, government troopers overran a marijuana plantation reportedly maintained by NPA rebels in Porac, Pampanga last Monday. Soldiers found 50,000 new marijuana sprouts and five kilos of marijuana plants in the area. — Ding Cervantes, James Mananghaya and Artemio Dumlao