Communist guerrillas killed eight policemen and a local official in co-ordinated attacks in the central Philippines on Saturday, the police commander for the region said. New People's Army (NPA) gunmen murdered a village official at his home at dawn and then ambushed a police patrol sent to investigate the killing, said Chief Superintendent Arnold Revilla, the regional police chief.
The rebels set off a roadside bomb as the patrol approached the village official's home, then raked it with gunfire, Revilla told reporters by telephone. He said the dead included the deputy police commander of Catarman city, Senior Inspector Necasio San Antonio. The attackers then stole the victims' firearms, he added. Revilla said police reinforcements were flown by helicopter into the hamlet, near Catarman on Samar island, amid concern that there were more unexploded bombs on the village road. The 5,000-member NPA has been waging a Maoist rebellion across much of the Philippines since 1969 that has left thousands of people dead.
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