NPA attacks police station in Misamis Oriental; 4 cops wounded

FOUR policemen of the Binuangan, Misamis Oriental municipal police station were wounded after members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) attacked the facility early Sunday morning, December 3, a police official said.

Police regional office 10 spokesperson Superintendent Lemuel Gonda said the four policemen were hit by shrapnel from the rifle grenade used by the NPA rebels during the attack.

He said the gun fight started around 3:15 a.m. and lasted at least 20 minutes.

“Then after that, ‘yung tinawag na ang tactical movement. Putok dito, putok doon, naghihintay, pakiramdaman hanggang sa umalis na ang mga kalaban (We called the tactical movement while gunshots rang out. Then we waited until the enemies left),” Gonda said.

Gonda said they have yet to establish whether there were casualties among the rebels.

He said pursuit operations against the NPA guerrillas were ongoing.

Immediately after the incident, regional police director Chief Superintendent Timoteo Taclob issued a directive to all police personnel in Northern Mindanao region to strengthen their target-hardening security measures to prevent such an attack from happening again.

He said they received information that the NPA, recently branded as terrorists by President Rodrigo Duterte, were planning to attack police stations in their areas following the cancellation of all the scheduled meetings in the Netherlands with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in relation to the peace talks.

Duterte’s decision stemmed from the recent attacks made by the NPA, particularly against the military and police.

"Before pa lang, nung peace talks pa lang, nagdeclare na yung CPPNPA-NDF ng offensive operation against the military and municipal police stations," Gonda said. (Even before the peace talks, the CPPNPA-NDF declared an offensive operations against military and municipal police stat i ons.)

The NPA is the armed wing of the CPP while the National Democratic Front is the political wing and represented the communists in the scrapped peace talks.

"So ang hamon sa atin dito, dapat walang makaatake kaya [ pinapalakas] yung target-hardening security measures (The challenge now is how to strengthen our targethardening security measures so that we are not vulnerable to attacks)," he added. (SunStar Philippines)