Chief Superintendent Jaime Lasar, the new regional police director, said about 20 heavily armed New People’s Army (NPA) rebels occupied the cellsite compound in Barangay Banuang Daan after disarming the two security guards at about 9:10 p.m.
Using an explosive, the rebels blasted the locked door of the equipment room, and once inside, they poured gasoline in the room and set it on fire.
The insurgents, reportedly led by one Ka Rolly of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 80, took the two guards as human shields as they fled toward the mountainous village of Naburukan, but released them about 200 meters away from the cellsite.
Authorities linked the attack to the telecommunications company’s refusal to give in to the rebels’ extortion demands.
Damage to the cellsite was placed at P6 million. — Celso Amo