Charges filed vs NPA rebels in Tarlac bus depot attack

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga—The Victory Liner Inc., its security agency and four security guards on Wednesday filed a case for arson, robbery, grave threat and physical injuries against eight suspected communist rebels who allegedly burned 12 buses and a company truck on Sunday night in Capas, Tarlac.

The case, filed at the prosecutor’s office in Tarlac City at past 3 p.m. Wednesday, included two women as respondents, said Senior Supt. Alfred Corpus, Tarlac police director.

The eight suspects were being hunted by teams of policemen and soldiers, Corpus said.

He said they belonged to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army unit operating in the boundaries of Central Luzon.

No NPA command or unit had owned up to the attack, the first in President Aquino’s home province this year.

Corpus said Victory Liner, in the complaint, noted that it incurred losses of around P30 million from the attack.

The management of Victory Liner has not issued any statement since Monday. It maintains the largest fleet of buses plying routes in central and northern Luzon.

Police reported that seven of the destroyed buses did not have engines while five were being repaired. These and the Isuzu Elf truck were parked at the company’s motor pool in Barangay Estrada in Capas.

Seven men wearing camouflage military uniforms disarmed security guards and torched the vehicles, a police report showed.

Corpus said the guards identified the suspects from photographs in police records.

The suspects apparently conducted surveillance on the motor pool as one of the guards recalled that one of them came looking for a supposed missing cow that destroyed a palay farm nearby, he said.