NPA rebels torch bus in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY—Suspected communist rebels torched a Manila-bound passenger bus in a remote village in this city on Thursday night, a few hours after hijacking it in Castilla, Sorsogon, an Army officer said on Friday.

The Silver Star bus, an air-conditioned unit which had 16 passengers when it left Bulan town in Sorsogon, was negotiating the Maharlika Highway at the vicinity of Barangays Cumadcad and Sogoy in Castilla when four passengers armed with handguns introduced themselves as New People’s Army rebels and hijacked the bus, said Maj. Angelo Guzman, 9th Infantry Division spokesperson.

He said the hijacked bus (TYK 265), with two alternating drivers on board identified as Enrique Salabsab and Jhonny Espinosa, was brought to Barangay Cagbacong at around 7:30 p.m.

Guzman said Cagbacong is an interior village of Legazpi around 30 kilometers from the city proper but only about 2 km away from Castilla town.

He said at Cagbacong, three more rebels with high-powered assault rifles joined the four hijackers and ordered the passengers to get off the bus.

After clearing the bus of its occupants, the NPA rebels poured gasoline over it and set it ablaze. After torching the bus, the rebels allowed the passengers to leave.

Quoting eyewitness accounts, Guzman said the four rebels posed as passengers when they boarded the bus in a terminal in Sorsogon City.

He said the rebels walked on foot as they trekked their way back to the national highway in Barangay Sogoy.

Guzman alleged that the bus was set on fire after the bus firm failed to heed the demands of the communist rebels for a revolutionary tax.