By Aaron Recuenco Suspected communist rebels ambushed a group of policemen who were on their way back to their unit from a medical mission in Camarines Sur, wounding six policemen who are mostly rookie cops. Philippine National Police Spokesperson Senior Supt. Benigno Durana Jr.
(Kevin Tristan Espiritu / MANILA BULLETIN) Chief Supt. Benigno Durana, spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the attack started via explosion of an improvised explosive device which was planted by local communist rebels alongside the road where the vehicle boarding the policemen had passed by. “The explosion was followed by a burst of gunfire. This resulted in a gunfight,” said Durana. He identified those wounded as Police Officer 3 Roland Hermogeno, PO1s Eliseo Jomar, Daisy Bhel Genoba, Vladimir Guadalupe, Roy Carbonell, and Mikhail Jose Concina. They are all assigned to the police’s Provincial Mobile Force Company of Camarines Sur. Durana said the nine policemen on board the vehicle were on their back to Libmanan town proper after joining the medical mission of doctors from the regional hospital when they were attacked in Sitio Patag in Mambulo Nuevo at around 5 p.m. on Saturday. Durana said policemen and soldiers were deployed in the area to conduct pursuit operations against the rebels. The 4,000-strong New People’s Army (NPA) has been waging almost five decades against the government, one of the longest-running insurgency in the world. Efforts to strike a peace deal with the communist rebels had repeatedly failed, mostly due to peace talks preconditions of the communist rebels. At least three NPA top leaders were rearrested after they were released as part of confidence-building measures of the Duterte administration. President Duterte has ordered the cancellation of the peace talks due to continuous attacks on policemen and soldiers despite the peace negotiations.