2 Sagada cops dead, 2 wounded in NPA raid

TUGUEGARAO CITY , Philippines   â€“ Two policemen were killed and two of their colleagues were wounded when New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, marking their 45th anniversary, swooped down on the camp of the Regional Public Safety Battalion in Sagada, Mt. Province Saturday.

Senior Superintendent Oliver Enmodias, Mt. Province police director, withheld the identities of the slain and wounded soldiers as their relatives still have to be informed about the incident.

Sagada was declared a peace zone in the early 1990s supposedly to be off-limits to both rebel and military forces.

In June last year, police and the military launched an assault following the NPA ambush of police trainees in Tadian town that left one dead almost a dozen others wounded.

The Army’s 54th Infantry Battalion used to encamp in Sagada but pulled out early this year after the municipal council and elders wanted the peace zone revived.

“What is clear in last Saturday’s assault was the rebels’ violation of the ongoing peaceful status of the area,” Enmodias told The STAR.