Three people were wounded when communist rebels raided the city jail in Malaybalay, Bukidnon and carted away several firearms late Wednesday afternoon, a military report said.
A certain PO3 Diez, a laborer and an inmate were reportedly hurt in the attack.
Lt. Col. Benedict Arevalo, chief of the Army’s 29th Infantry Battalion said in a phone interview that about 50 New People’s Army rebels, on board three vehicles stormed the facility and carted away three M16 assault rifles and three pistols.
Arevalo said two of the suspects posed as visitors to gain entry to the jail. When they were in, they immediately fired at the guards and took their service rifles. Then they subsequently took three short firearms of police officers who had just transported an inmate.
Then the rebels proceeded to the supply room and took another rifle and two radios.
“Four policemen who transported inmates engaged the rebels, one of the policemen was injured, since the firepower of the other side is strong, they were not able to put up that much resistance,” he said.
He said the 403rd Infantry Brigade immediately dispatched troops, backed by an armored vehicle to the area, but was fired upon by the rebels.
The insurgents also tried to detonate a landmine as the convoy approached, but failed to inflict that much damage, enabling the troops to dismount and engage the rebels in a brief but fierce firefight.
“When the rebels saw that we were stronger in terms of firepower, they decided to withdraw towards the mountains,” he said.
Arevalo said the raid is part of the NPA’s agaw-armas operations, to be able to gather firearms from soft targets such as security guards and jail personnel.