MANILA, 23 July 2006 — A group of soldiers who were traveling to their place of work in the eastern Philippines helped police and coast guard troops repulse what could have been a disastrous attack by communist rebels yesterday in the eastern Philippine port town of Matnog, military and police officials said.

National Police chief Oscar Calderon said up to 100 New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas, arriving in land vehicles and motorboats, attacked the police station and nearby coast guard office in Matnog, Sorsogon province, about 400 kilometers southeast of Manila, when everyone in the town was still asleep.

The guerrillas managed to destroy the police station but were forced to withdraw after a two-hour gunbattle as government volunteer troops and soldiers waiting for a ferry ride joined the defenders, said local army commander Brig. Gen. Arsenio Arugay.

“Unfortunately for (the guerrillas), there were some troops present in the town at the time of the attack. They suffered heavily on this tactical offensive,” Arugay said.

When the smoke of battle cleared, five of the rebels were founded dead as against only one maritime police officer, said Matnog police chief Jesus Callada. Five other policemen and a civilian were wounded.

“The rebels arrived in the town aboard two buses, a passenger jeep and an ambulance and immediately surrounded and attacked the police stations,” Callada said.

Calderon said the rebels broke into small groups as they withdrew, some taking the boats, as army reinforcements arrived.

Three M-16 rifles and assorted explosives were recovered from the slain rebels, he said.

He said he ordered police to check hospitals in the area because many of the rebels were believed to have been wounded.

One of the worst known NPA debacles was in 1987 when the guerrillas lost some 41 fighters while attacking a police outpost in the northern mountain town of Balbalan in Kalinga province. The defenders, composed of 7 battle-hardened policemen and paramilitary troops, lost two men.

Bicol regional police chief Victor Boco said police have foiled several rebel plans to attack the police station in Matnog, the southeasternmost tip of the main island of Luzon, which serves as a ferry connection to Samar and other islands in the central Philippines.

The attack came a day after the new military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, vowed to crush the 37-year-old communist insurgency.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered an early end to the communist insurgency before her term ends in 2010 and recently ordered one billion pesos ($18.86 million) to be spent on additional war materials to boost the fight against the guerrillas.

The communist rebels have been fighting the government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia. Peace talks collapsed in 2004 after the rebels pulled out from the negotiations because of its inclusion to the terror lists of the United States and the European Union on Manila’s prodding.

The rebels demanded that Arroyo asks the United States and the European Union to strike them off from the terror lists before they resume peace talks. Manila rejected the demand and suspended safety and immunity guarantee for rebel peace negotiators following the collapse of the talks. (With input from agencies)