ZAMBOANGA CITY, 22 March 2006 — Communist guerrillas raided another police station and burned a commuter bus early this week as they stepped up attacks across the Philippine archipelago.

It was the fifth attack in just a week since the New People’s Army (NPA) announced a new offensive after government troops crushed an alleged conspiracy by leftists and military rebels to topple President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last month.

Officials said the latest rebel target was a passenger bus in the province of Bataan, west of the national capital, Manila.

Disguised as soldiers, the rebels entered the Bataan Transit Inc. terminal at 1:15 a.m. in Mariveles town, tied a security guard before pouring gasoline on a bus and set it on fire.

Police reports said the rebels attacked the bus firm after its officials failed to give “revolutionary tax” that the rebels have been asking since December last year.

On Monday, rebels attacked a police outpost in the town of Sapang Dalaga in Misamis Occidental in northeastern Mindanao.

More than a dozen rebels in Philippine Army uniforms swooped down on the outpost on Monday, ordering those inside to lie face and carting away several M16 rifles, said regional police chief Florante Baguio.

Rebels also clashed with soldiers in the town of Godod in Zamboanga del Norte, a province in the western part of the island, and the military said one soldier was killed.

On Sunday, about 20 rebels clashed with an army patrol in Tabuelan town in Cebu Island, leaving two guerrillas dead and one soldier wounded, police said.

Rebels also captured five assault rifles and a machine gun in a raid in Escalante town in Negros Island.

A day before, rebels disguised as NBI agents raided a police outpost in Botolan town of Zambales, north of Manila, seizing several firearms.

Director General Arturo Lomibao, chief of the national police, said the country was on increased alert for more rebel raids ahead of the founding anniversary of the NPA on March 29.

“They would always try to surprise lightly defended stations to collect more guns,” he said, adding the rebels were stepping up offensives to collect “war taxes” and steal more weapons to make up for their losses in gun battles.

The underground Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA, have been on US and European terrorist lists since 2001.

They suspended Norwegian-brokered talks with the government in 2004, saying Manila had refused to try to get them removed from the terror blacklists.

A rebel leader yesterday said President Arroyo has effectively killed the peace process.

The guerrillas, who have been waging a countryside Marxist insurgency since the late 1960s, number about 7,500, according to military estimates.