GINGOOG CITY –– A group of suspected communist rebels burned a passenger bus in Misamis Oriental last Wednesday night.
No one was hurt.
The Misamis Oriental Police Office said investigators were still facing a blank wall in their probe on the motive and the identity of the group responsible for the attack.
Other quarters quickly pointed to the New People’s Army (NPA) as the culprit, noting that the rebel group has been harassing companies which do not pay “revolutionary taxes.”
In the past, the NPA had claimed responsibility for burning of buses.
But Gingoog City police sources pointed to a certain “Commander Gupos” as the mastermind in the bus attack. It was alleged that Gupos’s group had been demanding money from the bus firm.
Gingoog police director Inspector Raul Benitez said a police team that responded to calls for help failed to arrest the culprits.
SPO4 Floro Crisologo of the Misamis Oriental Police office said the bus, owned by Bagong Lipunan Transit, was set on fire by seven armed men at sitio Koliao, barangay Agayayan, Gingoog City at about 8 p.m. Wednesday.
