NPAs attack Bulacan village

MALOLOS CITY – At least 60 heavily armed suspected communist rebels attacked a village in the mountainous part of Norzagaray, Bulacan on Saturday and has since been terrorizing residents taking away domesticated animals.

The armed men, residents and officials said entered Sitio Tiakad, Barangay San Mateo, Norzagaray town around 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Senior Superintendent Allen Bantolo, the acting provincial police director of Bulacan told The STAR in a telephone interview yesterday that the rebels came from the province of Rizal and crossed the eastern boarder of Bulacan.

Bantolo said that joint elements of Bulacan police and the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion stationed at Barangay Matictic, Norzagaray town conducted an operation to investigate the incident.

“Nagsialis na daw,” Bantolo told The STAR referring to police and military reports.

However, Mayor Feliciano Legazpi and some residents of Sitio Tiakad told The STAR that the armed men who harassed residents and took away goats and chicken did not actually leave the area.

Legazpi said in a telephone interview that the groups encamped on a hill some two kms. away east of the giant sanitary landfill at Sitio Tiakad.

He said that when the armed men came to Sitio Tiakad on Saturday, residents said they were military officers as they were wearing camouflage uniforms with patches that reads “Army.”

But residents became suspicious when the armed men started taking away their domesticated animals and asked for a certain Genaro, a community leader.

This was affirmed by a resident contacted by The STAR through telephone yesterday who asked not to be named.

He said that some armed men were only wearing slippers.   – With Ric Sapnu