BAGUIO CITY – Another police facility was raided by suspected communist rebels, with the victim this time a sub-station in Brgy. Loo in Buguias, Benguet.
The raid at about 9pm Tuesday (May 16) was done “without even firing a single shot,” according to the Jennifer Cariño Command of the New People’s Army (JCC-NPA-Benguet), which owned the raid through a statement e-mailed to media.
According to the NPA, the police station was quickly overrun by the rebels unit, which seized a 9mm Bereta firearm with four magazines, an M14 magazine, one hand grenade, holsters, pouch, two VHF radios and military uniforms. “The comrades faithfully observed all regulations of the New People’s Army Rules on Engagement and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL),” read the statement.
The NPA said its latest attack is a punitive action for the “crimes committed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) against the people and the revolutionary movement.”
It singled out the Buguias police force, whose members, claimed the NPA, “are notorious for committing crimes against the masses. They randomly stop motorists plying the highway in order to extort bribes. Most of these motorists are gardeners bringing their vegetable harvest to market. The bribe money extorted by the police adds to the already heavy burden of the gardeners struggling under the high prices of farm inputs and fluctuating prices of their produce. The Buguias police force are also involved in the sale of illegal drugs and other anti-social activities such as the operation of bars.”
The NPA-Benguet command said the Buguias police tortured and killed their comrade Ka Antonio “Ka Leyap” Licawen, in 2005, in Barangay Bad-ayan, even though he was injured and had already surrendered to the police.
The NPA command added that the Bugias police are also responsible for torturing a group of youth who were hitchhiking along Halsema Highway in 2006, after the successful NPA raid on the Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) detachment in Cabitin, Mankayan.
“The New People’s Army stands firm in its commitment to protect the interests of the people and serve revolutionary justice on those who commit crimes against them. The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are primary targets of the NPA’s military operations as they are the instruments of the fascist ruling state in maintaining their exploitation and repression of the masses,” the NPA stressed.
