ZAMBOANGA CITY, 30 May 2004 — Gunmen yesterday stormed into an electric cooperative office in the southern island of Samal and took away payroll money after briefly holding several employees, the military said. The gunmen took a still undetermined amount of the payroll money and then stripped employees of valuables before fleeing on board a motorboat, regional military spokesman Maj. Bartolome Bacarro said. Other reports said seven men barged into the office of the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative and announced a holdup. The men claiming to be communist rebels reportedly took more than 300,000 pesos ($5,361).
