MANILA: Philippine officials say more than 100 communist guerrillas stormed one of the world's largest pineapple plantations in the country's south, killing a guard, burning farm equipment and seizing firearms in their biggest attack so far this year.
Police say two other guards were shot and wounded by about 100 New People's Army guerrillas who barged into a residential, recreational and office complex on the vast plantation of Del Monte Philippines Inc. late Tuesday in Manolo Fortich town in Bukidnon province.
Army Lt. Col. Eugenio Osias said yesterday that the insurgents separately attacked an office of another pineapple plantation in Bukidnon and blocked traffic in two nearby towns to prevent reinforcement troops from responding to the attack on Del Monte. The 43-year Marxist rebellion is one of Asia's longest-running.
Chinese defendants escape from jail
Philippine police say masked gunmen have helped three Chinese nationals, including two serving life sentences on drug charges, escape from jail guards who were driving them to court.
Regional police chief Benito Estipona says about 20 men armed with assault rifles and wearing ski masks blocked a vehicle carrying the Chinese to the trial court yesterday in Trece Martirez township in Cavite province south of Manila. The gunmen disarmed the guards and escaped with the three in a van that they later abandoned.
The three included a couple serving a life sentence for operating a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory in Manila. The couple are also co-defendants with the third escapee in a separate drug case.
National police chief Alan Purisima has ordered a nationwide manhunt for the escapees.
