AFP personnel securing voting machines attacked in Masbate

MANILA, Philippines - Suspected communist rebels attacked soldiers deployed to secure the delivery of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in Masbate yesterday, the military said.

Maj. Harold Cabunoc, spokesman of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said 12 men of the 85th Infantry Battalion were passing through Sitio Busay, Barangay Pawikan in Palanas town when a roadside bomb exploded.  

The troops were on board a KM450 truck and a Simba armored personnel carrier headed toward Masbate City where poll officials would pick up the PCOS machines.

“No one was injured among the soldiers but the KM450’s windshield was damaged. It is the fifth ambush attempt on government forces by the local terrorist group using landmines,” Cabunoc said.

The military, however, is not discounting the possibility that other armed groups in Masbate might be behind the bombing.