NATIVIDAD – A plan of the New People’s Army (NPA) to lay siege on the municipal hall and police station of Natividad was foiled Monday night by army soldiers and policemen.

The plan was thwarted when the police led by Sr. Insp. Bernardo Aromin, chief of police, received an intelligence report that armed men, believed to be from the NPA, were massing in sitio Simimbaan, Barangay Batchelor East.

Aromin immediately called for help from the 7lst Infantry Battalion that immediately launched an attack on the rebels before the latter could even move to the town proper. The soldiers were led by lst Lt. Terrence Cabarle,       

While no casualties were reported by either side, soldiers recovered one armalite rifle and a back-pack containing subversive documents and personal belongings.

Soldiers also discovered traces of blood along the escape route of the rebels, indicating that some of them were wounded and might have been carried by their fleeing comrades.

Purisima said soldiers and policemen are now combing government and private hospitals not only in Pangasinan but also Nueva Ecija and Tarlac in search of wounded rebels who may have been brought there by comrades.

Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima, police provincial director, confirmed the encounter and identified the rebels as those from adjacent Nueva Ecija who consider Eastern Pangasinan as part of their operational jurisdiction.

The intelligence report said that those who planned to attack Natividad were members of the Nueva Ecija Party Committee of the New People’s Army first sighted   in another barangay in Natividad two weeks ago while collecting revolutionary taxes from residents.

Noting that eastern Pangasinan is vulnerable to attack by NPA rebels, Purisima has beefed up police stations in San Nicolas, Natividad, San Quintin, Umingan and

Balungao with more men and ordered chiefs of police to coordinate closely with army soldiers in their areas. – A.P.E.

Ex-cop found
in shallow grave

UMINGAN- Joint elements of the police and the Philippine Army dug out Thursday the remains of a retired police officer who was abducted by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) members early this year in Guimba, Nueva Ecija in the mountain area of barangay Maseil-seil here.

P/Supt. Noli Taliño, former deputy police director for operations of this province and the provincial intelligence officer, said that the body is believed to be that of former SP04 Esteban Bravo of Guimba, Nueva Ecija who was last assigned at the intelligence section of Nueva Ecija police office prior to his retirement.

The law enforcers, composed of the Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija police and the Army, traced Bravo’s grave after an NPA surrenderee revealed the information to the elements of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion in Nueva Ecija.

The police and the military returned to the gravesite Friday, about a four-hour walk from the foot of the mountain, for another unearthing of a female cadaver suspected to that of an NPA member who had been killed by her NPA comrades for being a “deep penetration agent” of the government.

Taliño said abandoned NPA training camps in the area were also discovered. – EVA

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