Reds torch passenger bus in Misamis

COTABATO (AP) — Suspected communist guerrillas burned a bus after ordering passengers to disembark in Misamis Oriental, apparently to punish the owner for ignoring their extortion demands, an Army official said yesterday.

Nobody was hurt in the late Saturday attack, said Lt. Col. Francisco Simbajon.

Four New People’s Army (NPA) rebels boarded the bus in Cagayan de Oro City, drew pistols midway through the trip to nearby Gingoog City, and ordered the driver and passengers off the bus.

The guerrillas then doused it with gasoline and set it ablaze before fleeing, he said.

Rebel attempts to extort money from businesses, which are threatened to pay "revolutionary taxes" to avoid attacks, indicate their desperation for funds and lack of support, Simbajon said.

The rebels are active in Misamis Oriental.

In a separate attack last Thursday, rebels opened fire on an outpost of pro-government militiamen near Misamis Oriental’s Talisayan town, sparking a brief gunbattle that wounded a number of rebels.

No militiaman was injured, Simbajon said.

The guerrillas, who have been waging a Marxist rebellion for 37 years, suspended Norwegian-brokered peace talks with the government two years ago, mainly to protest its refusal to ask the United States and the European Union to remove them from terrorist blacklists.

The government has long accused the rebels of extortion and economic sabotage.