Three policemen killed during guerrilla ambush

Three policemen were killed and a similar number wounded following an ambush by communist guerrillas in northern Philippines' Kalinga province on Wednesday, reports reaching Manila yesterday said.

The attack on the policemen occurred just a few days after exiled leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) announced that they are ready to face a fresh offensive by the government after President Gloria Arroyo ordered the redeployment of troops to counter the insurgency threat.

Initial reports from the regional office of the police in La Trinidad, Benguet, said the group of policemen, who were in a truck when they were ambushed, was returning from the town of Tabuk after staking out a local criminal.

The group, which was led by Police Supt. Tony Gumerang, was waylaid by an undetermined number of communist rebels on a bridge in Lubuagan town.

The fatalities in the afternoon ambush include Inspector Nestor Miranda and police officers Tony Mahinay and Arthur Ambakan, all members of the Regional Special Action Force.

Gumerang, Inspector Abraham Galingan and police officer Aurelio Bitanga were rushed to the Kalinga Provincial Hospital for treatment from gunshot wounds. Earlier, Arroyo ordered the redeployment of soldiers fighting the Abu Sayyaf in southern Basilan to other parts of the country where the CPP and its armed-wing, the New People's Army (NPA), are active.

The President issued the order after military officials noted an increase in NPA activities during the past months.

Gen. Roy Cimatu, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), noted that despite a decrease in the number of combatants, the 11,000-member CPP-NPA was able to expand its operations in the provinces because of the pull out of government troops in the countryside over the past three years to face the threat of the Abu Sayyaf.

CPP founding chairman, Jose Maria Sison, on Tuesday ordered NPA guerrillas to attack vital government installations such as power lines and power generating plants in response to the military redeployment.

Sison, in an order he issued from his office in Netherlands, said the NPA operations would "deliver telling blows to the Arroyo regime in terms of economic disruption".