For two hours, six policemen fought at least 50 communist rebels who swooped down on their station in Hinabangan town in Samar province early Monday but failed to stop them from taking several firearms, police said.
“They obviously outnumbered our policemen… Still, they were able resist which resulted in a firefight that lasted for more than two hours,” said Senior Superintendent Elizar Egloso, Philippine National Police regional information officer.
Egloso said three New People’s Army (NPA) members were killed. But he acknowledged that only one body was recovered from the scene as the others were carried away by their retreating comrades.
Two policemen were wounded.
Their chief, Police Officer 1 Norwyn Valenzuela, was not around when the rebels struck at 4:45 a.m. He was said to be on patrol in Barangay Mugdo at that time.
The six policemen fired at them from a foxhole at the back of the station, Egloso said.
Some of the attackers seized several service firearms from the station, included one M-16 rifle, one 9-mm pistol, one .45 cal. pistol, one computer, and several police uniforms.
Egloso identified the recovered body as that of Mario Abarracoso, 64, of Barangay (village) 2, Hinabangan, reportedly a former Philippine Constabulary soldier who joined the NPA. It was brought to the municipal health center for autopsy.
But Abarracoso’s wife, Emma, 45, denied that her husband was an NPA member. “He rushed to the area when he heard the bursts of fire,” she said in a phone interview on Monday.
The wounded policemen were identified as Police Officer 1 Elmer Campo, who suffered injury in the left eye, and PO1 Allan Pagampang, who was hit in the left hand. They were taken to the hospital at Camp Lukban, headquarters of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division, in Catbalogan City,
Colonel Niceforoso Diaz, division information officer, said troops backed by two helicopters were dispatched to go after the rebels.