November 21, 2000
PIA Bicol
LEGAZPI CITY - Over 100 New People's Army (NPA) rebels swooped down on the municipal hall of Caramoan town in Camarines Sur on Saturday, killing a policeman, two civilians and wounded seriously two other policemen and two other civilians, the Philippine National Police (PNP)
regional command at Camp Gen. Simeon Ola said Sunday.
Killed in a 6-hour NPA raid were PO1 Dante Paulo Olitoquit and two unidentified civilians, one a former CAFGU. The
wounded policemen were SPO1 Ronnie Casipit and PO2 Rodel Valencia, according to Police Sup't Eliciar Bron, Bicol PNP spokesperson.
The victims were among the 15 policemen who put up a fight and defended the Caramoan town hall police station against the NPA siege that occured at around 2:45 Saturday and ended at around 7:55 in the evening of the same day.
The NPA guerillas outnumbering the policemen manning the town hall were able to enter the municipal building, ransacked and destroyed some office and communication facilities rendering impossible for the PNP to send immediately SOS radio message to the PNP provincial command and other neighboring police units in the area.
The NPA rebels were able to cut-off the power supply of the town proper and guarded the phone calling stations and identified areas where cellphone transmission could get through.
It took about four hours for police reinforcement to arrive at the scene due to lack of communications system in said place, if not for a few members of an amateur radio club in Caramoan who were able to transmit the emergency call to Virac, Catanduanes parish office.
Members of the municipal council were reportedly having a special meeting at the time of the seige while the Mayor's residence was reportedly also raided but no member of the household was hurt.
Two municipal employees were wounded during the raid - Municipal agriculture officer Francisco Altes and Rizialina Padua of the Municipal Treasurer's Office who were brought to the Mother Seton Hospital in Naga City.
The police provincial command has requested two MG520 helicopters from the Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) based in Lucena but poor weather prevented the helicopters from taking off, Bron said. "The police regional command was able to dispatch a helicopter Sunday."
Police officials at Camp Ole lamented the lack of communication facilities to and from remote towns posing a serious threat to the security of the area.
Over in Masbate, suspected New People's Army (NPA)
hitmen initiated another liquidation activities, killing two policemen in separate raids in the towns of Cataingan and Monreal in Masbate.
NPA rebels gunned down Thursday last week SPOl Ronilo Hermosa, 39, a murder convict detained at the Cataingen municipal jail and former member of the town police while P03 Crisostomo Almoradji, 32, of the Monreal police station was executed on Wednesday near his residence in Barangay MacArthur, Monreal town.
Hermosa was outside the Cataingan town jail premises when four teenaged NPA rebels armed with 45 caliber handguns approached him and at close range fired at the victim killing him instantly. The victim, a former cop was convicted of murder and was temporarily detained at the town jail since his case is under appeal.
Probers said the victim was killed by NPA hitmen as a vendetta, as reports said that Hermosa was tagged responsible for the killing of a relative of an NPA leader, from which he was convicted for murder.
P03 Almoradji, a member of the Monreal police station, reportedly was on his way to report for duty at the Kababayan Center in Sitio Togoron, Barangay MacArthur early Wednesday morning when shot to death by eight NPA rebels armed with M16 rifles.
Earlier this week two Army soldiers, two policemen and an 18-year-old coed were killed in an ambush staged by NPA rebels in the town of Daraga in Albay.
Police records show that at least over 80 people most of them
civilians were suspected killed by NPA hitmen during past three quarters of the year.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Bicol in an open statement assailed the senseless killings and atrocities propagated by the NPA. (MSArguelles/CTAmo, PIA)
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