Bicol police places region on full alert after alleged NPA harassment
Police declared full alert in the Bicol region Monday night after harassment on a police station and two mobile companies allegedly by the New People's Army (NPA) left four cops wounded..
In a report by the PNP Bicol region office, the target of reported harassment were Magallanes 1st Company and the Provincial Mobile Force Co. in Sorsogon and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Bula, Camarines Sur.
Capt. Joash Pramis, spokesman of the Army's 9th Infantry Division, said an undetermined number of rebels harassed the Police Regional Mobile Force Battalion at Barangay Panoypoyan, Bula, Camarines Sir at 9:15 p.m. One policemen was wounded.
Around 16 rebels fired at the municipal police station in Barangay Poblacion, Magallanes town in Sorsogon at around 7:30 p.m. wounding three cops and a civilian.
Pramis said armed men harassed an Army outpost in Bato, Camarines Sur at around 8 p.m. Militiamen turned back the incursion.
The Bicol PNP placed the region under full alert at 8 p.m.
In phone patched interview with defense reporters, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benjamin Madrigal said the attacks might be a diversionary tactic by the rebel group in connection with its coming 50th anniversary.
"Now that their (NPA) anniversary is approaching, they do acts of harassment to show they still exist. We usually call it 'nuisance harassment' since they only fire few shots from afar. Still, we are monitoring possible diversionary operation or decisive attacks," Madrigal said.
PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde said police are expecting more attacks in the following days. But he said these are "very isolated" and are being conducted in remote areas and soft targets.
"We already know that this leftist group, especially their armed wing, are really trying to show that they are still a force to reckon even though they only have few members now," Albayalde said." Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS
