Communist rebels took six people hostage and confiscated firearms, set off two explosives including one that wounded six soldiers and forcibly took away several vehicles in at least four attacks in a span of 24 hours in the provinces of North Cotabato and Davao del Norte, the military said Tuesday.
Jorge Madlos, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front in Mindanao, apologized on Sunday, to the Guingonas for the gun attack on Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie Guingona and her bodyguards, saying the NPA was not intending to ambush the party but only to hold the convoy, disarm the bodyguards and talk to the mayor.
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Kidapawan City in North Cotabato at 5:51 p.m. Wednesday. There was no immediate report of injuries or damage to properties, according to Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
The New People’s Army has captured two police officers and seven militiamen in the Caraga Region, in separate instances, in the past days.
There were no firecracker injuries in this city. There was a lot of noise—from the shrieks of children aboard a convoy of vehicles going round and round the village, to the wailing of sirens and ambulances, the clanging of metal against metal—as people went around banging pans and ladles and rhythmically honking cars and revving car engines, as the city greeted the New Year.
Four persons, including two policemen and a retired police officer, have been arrested here for extortion on Friday, according to the city police.
The National Democratic Front (NDF) has assured relief volunteers of their safety in hinterland villages devastated by typhoon “Pablo.”
A forensics team from the National Bureau of Investigation is working double time to process hundreds of dead bodies left in the wake of Typhoon “Pablo” so these could be identified and buried before the year ends.
A Malaysian national, suspected to be a member of the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, was shot dead as he threatened to detonate an improvised explosive device when cornered by authorities here late Friday evening, the police said Saturday.
Authorities fear that the death toll due to typhoon Pablo (international codename: Bopha) could reach 1,000 as almost 600 bodies have been recovered in the two hardest-hit Mindanao provinces.
Bundled up in a heavy blanket and layers of plastic, 7-year-old Imee Sayson was trembling as she was brought down from a military truck that arrived at the public gymnasium here Wednesday morning.
Juniper Serato scanned the bodies lined up at the public gymnasium in this farming town that bore the brunt of winds gusting up to 160 kilometers per hour when Typhoon “Pablo” made landfall in eastern Mindanao before dawn on Tuesday.
Contrary to the military’s claim, the four soldiers killed in an ambush by communist rebels in the Paquibato district here on Sunday were armed, a rebel leader said.
