NPAs in bus burning tagged, hunted

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga—Despite strong rains and winds by Typhoon “Pedring,” policemen and soldiers in Tarlac scoured mountainous areas in the province on Tuesday to pursue suspects in the burning of 12 buses and a truck owned by Victory Liner Inc. on Sunday.

Four of the seven suspects have been identified by security guards of the company, said Senior Supt. Alfred Corpus, Tarlac police director and head of a special task group formed to investigate the case.

“In fact, they’re rebels,” Corpus said when asked who the suspects were.

He did not say how the security guards knew that the suspects were rebels belonging to the New People’s Army. The suspects’ names have been withheld.

Corpus declined to give details on the case, citing operational concerns.

On Sunday night, seven men wearing camouflage military uniforms disarmed the security guards manning Victory Liner’s motor pool in Barangay Estrada in Capas, Tarlac, and burned the buses.

The police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Central Luzon has taken over the investigation, Senior Supt. Rudy Lacadin, CIDG regional chief, told the Inquirer.

Lacadin said a case for grave threat, arson, robbery and physical injuries would be filed against the suspects today (Sept. 28, Wednesday).

Victory Liner has not shown investigators a letter through which the NPA supposedly demanded payment of revolutionary tax, Corpus said. The firm has not issued a statement following the attack.

As of Tuesday, no NPA command or unit operating in central and northern Luzon had issued statements to claim responsibility for the bus torching.

Maj. Gen. Jessie Dellosa, chief of the military’s Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), said the Armed Forces of the Philippines will not remove Tarlac from its list of insurgency-free provinces despite the attack attributed to communist rebels.

“What they’re doing is banditry and extortion,” Dellosa said.

The Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines (PBOAP) urged the police to punish people behind the attack and protect bus companies plying the provinces.

“We pray that this tragic and deplorable incident would open the eyes of the government to the bus industry’s state of neglect,” Alex Yague, PBOAP president, said in a statement.