[Inquirer] A day after Philippine government negotiators met with their Maoist militant counterparts, New People's Army rebels burned a bus in Mindanao and injured five policemen in an ambush in northern Luzon.On Monday, suspected NPA militants torched on Monday a Davao City-bound bus in Makilala, North Cotabato. Another group of militants injured five policemen in an ambush on a convoy headed towards a police station that was attacked on Sunday night in Malibcong town.
Police spokesman Roneo Galgo said suspected NPA rebels flagged down the bus at Makilala town on Monday morning. The bus driver, said six militants boarded the bus, introduced themselves as NPA members and directed him to drive toward Barangay San Vicente.
The driver said, "One of the suspects drew a pistol and told me to divert the vehicle to the secluded area toward San Vicente village.The suspects ordered us to vacate the bus and look for a safe place before they set it on fire."
Galgo said the attackers belonged to the NPA's Guerrilla Front 72 operating in Makilala and in Bansalan, Davao del Sur province. The attack came five days after NPA militants killed four policemen in an ambush in Bansalan.
Four policemen were injured when their vehicle on its way to Bansalan hit an explosive device, followed by a burst of gunfire. A police spokesman said investigators did not know if the attackers were the same militants who raided a house serving as temporary police station in Malibcong.
Five Malibcong policemen engaged 30 armed men in a 10-minute firefight on Sunday evening. The gun battle stopped when town elders intervened, allowing the five to retreat to the house of Mayor Romando Bacuyag. But the militants managed to ransack the temporary police station, and fled with police-issued weapons.
The attacks did not violate any ceasefire agreement between the government and the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines, since no cessation of hostilities has yet been declared.
In a joint statement issued on Saturday, government and NDFP representatives agreed that indefinite unilateral ceasefire declarations would be issued before the fourth round of talks in the first week of April.
The two sides are scheduled to meet in Oslo during the first week of April to resume the next round of talks, which were scuttled last month. The insurgents lifted their unilateral ceasefire on February 10 after accusing the government of failing to release all political prisoners and the military of deploying troops in rebel-held areas. The Duterte administration responded by scrapping its own unilateral ceasefire and suspending the peace talks.