MANILA, 20 May 2008 — Dozens of communist rebels raided a provincial jail in the southern Philippines and seized assorted weapons after disarming stunned prison guards in a daring broad daylight attack yesterday.
Security officials said troops were tracking down more than 70 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who attacked the prison facility in Davao Oriental.
“They took at least 13 assorted firearms and transceiver radios after disarming the guards,” Maj. Raymundo Aguada, a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, told Arab News.
“Our soldiers are pursuing the NPA rebels, but there is no report yet of any armed encounter,” Aguada said.
He said the rebels, disguised as government soldiers, swooped down on the prison at around noontime and took the guards by surprise.
They then ransacked the armory after disarming several guards. They fled aboard a truck without attempting to free any of the inmates, police said. In addition to about a dozen rifles, a shotgun and pistols they took from the jail armory and guards, the guerrillas stole three two-way radio sets, said regional police chief Andres Caro.
It was the most daring raid the NPA had carried out this year. The rebels had kidnapped soldiers and pro-government militias in the past and attacked military targets as well in the southern region where it is active.
Last week, government and rebel peace negotiators met in Norway in an effort to revive talks that had collapsed almost four years ago.
But so far both sides have achieved nothing. The NPA said it would only resume peace negotiations if Manila complies with at least 13 agreements it signed in the past.
The rebels accused Manila of reneging on its commitment, especially on issues of human rights and extra-judicial killings and disappearance of political activists in the country. The NPA is fighting the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the Philippines.
