NPAs raid Samar detachment; woman, 1-year-old girl killed

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – A 26-year-old pregnant woman, her one-year-old daughter and two soldiers were killed when about 50 communist guerillas raided the military detachment of the Army’s 20th Battalion in Barangay Polangi Catarman yesterday morning.

Northern Samar Philippine National Police provincial director Senior Superintendent Eusebio Mejos when reached through phone interview with The Star identified the civilians hit by the crossfire as Allura Lira of Sta. Rita Samar, her one-year-old daughter Hipa, who happened to be the wife of a soldier detailed in the said detachment.

However, Mejos refused to identify the two soldiers killed in the said attack and the one injured in respect to the existing policy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that, media are not authorized to divulge the identity of the victims until their respective families will first be informed.

Mejos said that initial investigation of the PNP in Northern Samar revealed that the estimated 50 rebels stormed the said military detachment reportedly composed of only one squad around 1:45 Sunday morning.

The raiding troops of NPAs were separately on board vehicles using two private trucks that were forcibly taken from a local businessman in the rebel area. 

Major General Arthur Tabaquero, commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan, Samar, the report reaching his office showed there were also NPAs killed in the attack based on the bloodstains seen in the area.