CAMP OLIVAS, PAMPANGA -- Gunmen believed to be New People’s Army rebels fired at Army soldiers guarding the route in Aurora province that Sen. Edgardo Angara was to take, police and military officials said Saturday.

1Lt. Ericson Bulosan, commander of a company of the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion that secured the route for the senator, said the rebels opened fire after Angara’s vehicle had passed through Barangay Nipoo in Dinalungan, Aurora, just after 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Bulosan said his men returned fire to repel the attackers.

One Army man wounded

He said a soldier driving an Army truck was hit by shards from the vehicle’s shattered windshield.

Bulosan said no soldier was killed in the attack.

Reached through his mobile phone, Angara said he did not know that an ambush had taken place “because I was away from the area.” He said he was on a boat when the incident happened.

Mina F. Pangandaman, Angara’s chief of staff, said the senator was traveling by sea to Casiguran, Quezon, at the time of the attack.

Angara compared the distance between the ambush site and his location “like Manila and Tawi-Tawi.”

Nipoo is about 25 km from the Dinalungan town proper.

Angara said he did not believe he was the target of the attack but the soldiers.

Bad for investment

He said it would be bad for the province’s investment climate if it were reported that public officials were the target of armed attacks.

Both Bulosan and Senior Supt. Romeo Teope, Aurora police director, said the NPA Aurora command was likely behind the ambush.

Angara, a native of Aurora, said he could not say anything more about the incident. “But whoever did this, they are drawing the anger of the people.”

He said he was in Dinalungan to open the Center for Coconut Production and Research, one of the agricultural projects he had initiated in his home province.