Armed
men attack Army detachment
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
SAN JOSE, Antique – Armed men strafed a Philippine Army
detachment in Brgy. Osorio 1, San Remegio town hours after
a delivery van was torched by suspected rebels in Leon, Iloilo
on Monday.
The attackers were likely New People’s
Army (NPA) cadres, too, said 1Lt. Mark Andrew Posadas, information
officer of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The strafing happened around 10 p.m. It lasted
for five minutes.
“It was clearly an act of harassment,”
said Posadas.
The armed men were strategically posted some
500 meters away from the detachment, he added.
There were no casualties.
Aside from housing regular members of the
82nd Infantry Division, the detachment also hosts Civilian
Armed Forces Geographical Unit and Civilian Volunteer Organization
members.
Brgy. Osorio 1 is some 16 kilometers away
from the town proper of San Remegio.
Police Regional Office 6 Director, Chief Supt.
Samuel Pagdilao Jr. immediately directed all chiefs of police
and station commanders, especially in far-flung barangays
of Western Visayas, to strengthen their defenses.
He also directed Chief Insp. Melvin Ricohermoso,
commander of the 3rd Maneuver Battalion of the Regional Public
Safety Battalion, to identify police stations located in NPA-infiltrated
areas, and to reinforce these with additional personnel.
Around noon on Monday, a van delivering eggs
was torched by armed men in Brgy. Samalague, Leon, Iloilo.
The way the attack was executed was similar
to what happened to the delivery van containing Philip Morris
products in Igbaras town last year, said Posadas.
The Army believes that the NPA’s Southern
Panay Front was responsible for both incidents.
Van driver Jomarie Tuadles said men, who all
had short firearms, took all the eggs worth around P50,000
before setting his vehicle on fire.
Tuadles also said the men took his P270,000
collection.
Posadas called the NPA “extortionists
pretending to be revolutionaries.”
“They threaten and coerce business owners
into giving them basic provisions so they (the rebels) will
not starve to death,” Posadas explained./PN
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