Rebs hold teachers, students hostage during Zambo raid

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Communist guerrillas apparently looking for food and medicines swooped down on a public school in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay yesterday and held the teachers and students, along with a priest, hostage, the military said.

The New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, numbering about 50, herded the teachers and pupils of the Buayan National School while they searched the premises for food and medicines.

Lt. Col. Susthenes Valcorza, spokesman of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said the rebels left their hostages unharmed as they fled.

Kabasalan Mayor Nonoy Chu said in a radio interview that security forces were pursuing the insurgents.

Military forces in the area have been conducting operations against communist guerrillas.

Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, Western Mindanao police director, said the police were helping the Army’s 102nd Infantry Brigade pursue the rebels who could still be in the mountains of Kabasalan.

Brig. Gen. Nestor Ochoa, 102nd IB chief, said they were establishing the leaders of the NPA unit which raided the school in Sitio Tigbangagan, Barangay Buayan.

In another development, some 50 NPA rebels raided a detachment of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Valencia City, Bukidnon Tuesday night.

Maj. Ernesto Torres, Army spokesman, said one S/Sgt. Quedano was killed and a still unidentified militiaman was wounded in the attack.

The rebels carted away 30 high-powered firearms.

A platoon of the 26th Infantry Battalion has been deployed in the area to pursue the NPA attackers.

The 7,400-member NPA is the guerrilla arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines and has been waging a decades-long Maoist insurgency. — With James Mananghaya and AFP