COMMUNIST rebels ambushed a convoy of Army trucks that had just transported relief goods to typhoon-stricken Northern Samar, the military said Friday.
The convoy of three trucks led by First Lt. Fritz Perez and two personnel from the Department of Social Welfare and Development were on their way back to Office of the Civil Defense-Eastern Visayas in Tacloban City after transporting the relief goods to the typhoon victims when they were waylaid by an undetermined number of NPA rebels around 7:20 a.m. along the Maharlika Highway Pinabacdao, Samar, the military said.
Two soldiers were wounded in the ensuing 15-minute firefight.
The military has sent reinforcements to the area. That stretch of the national highway was closed Friday morning due to the firefight.
The Armed Forces condemned the ambush and accused the communist New People’s Army of being behind the attack.
“The NPAs are continuously and deliberately conducting atrocities like ambuscades against our troops who
are only doing their job to assist in humanitarian assistance [and] disaster response operations,” said Maj. Gen. Jet Velarmino, commander of the 8th Infantry Division was quoted in the statement.
Velarmino said the attack would not hamper ongoing relief operations for victims of Typhoon “Nona” in the Eastern Visayas.
Despite the recent attack, President Benigno Aquino III ordered a unilateral suspension of military operations against the NPA from 12:01 a.m. of Dec. 23 to 11:59 p.m. of Jan. 3, 2016, in observation of Christmas and the New Year.
On Dec. 15, the NPA declared a 12-day ceasefire covering the same days “in solidarity with the Filipino people’s traditional celebrations of Christmas and New Year holidays.” — With Sandy Araneta