Cop killed, 2 hurt in Masbate ambush

LEGAZPI CITY – A policeman died while two of his companions were wounded after they were ambushed by a group of armed men in Baleno town in Masbate province on Sunday morning.

Senior Police Officer 1 Zandro Cabintoy, public information officer of the Masbate provincial police, said a bomb planted by the roadside exploded, causing the policemen’s patrol car to swerve and hit a concrete wall in Sitio Tangad, Barangay (village) Gangao in Baleno at 5:40 a.m.

A burst of gunfire followed the blast.

Cabintoy said PO2 Jack Brondial died instantly while two other policemen were wounded in a 10-minute firefight.

Cabintoy said the eight-member team from Baleno police was on its way back to the town’s police station after checking a report that a corpse was found in the village.

Cabintoy said the armed men took an M16 rifle from the policemen before fleeing toward nearby Aroroy town.

Meanwhile, soldiers from the Army’s 31st Infantry Battalion recovered 183 rounds of bullets for an M60 machine gun and a generator set after engaging at least 30 communist rebels in a five-minute firefight in Gubat town in Sorsogon province at 5 a.m., also on Sunday.

Lt. Col. Angelo Guzman, spokesperson of the military’s Southern Luzon Command, said the soldiers were patrolling the village of Sangat when they chanced upon the New People’s Army rebels.

No one was hurt in the clash.