CAMP ELIAS ANGELES, Pili, Camarines Sur --- A caravan bearing the medical team of the Office of the President and the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation (PGMA/PAGCOR) was fired upon by suspected rebel guerillas along Andaya Highway in Sitio Amlongon, Bgy. Liboro, Ragay, Camarines Sur, some 200 kilometers away from here, last Friday morning, April 18.

        In a report by the 9th infantry division of the Philippine Army based in this camp, Col. Ramon M. Baldemor said the caravan, while on the way to Manila after conducting a medical mission in selected areas in Bicol at around 10:00 a.m. of April 18, was sprayed with high powered bullets by more or less 15 New People’s Army rebels who were positioned some 150 meters away from the highway. No one was reported hurt as the caravan managed to drive fast away from the ambush area.

        Responding government troopers recovered from the scene of the incident 19 empty shells of M16 and four empty shells of M14 rifles.

        The troops in a short while escorted the cruising medical team to a safer place in nearby Quezon province.

        Meanwhile, in an earlier development, Army troopers last April 16 nabbed a top ranking leader of the rebels’ Bicol Regional Party Committee in Bgy. Obi, Caramoran, Catanduanes.

        Lt. Col. Leoncio A. Cirunay identified the arrested communist leader as Herminio Zunega, a.k.a. ‘July’ who reportedly belonged to the “Komiteng Seksiyon sa Platon (KSPN) codenamed “Pusa” that operates in the towns of Virac, San Andres, and parts of Caramoran, all in the island province of Catanduanes.

        9ID Commander Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Sodusta said his command has so far neutralized the rebel forces following the arrest of nine top NPA leaders in Bicol during the first quarter of 2008 alone. Among the most notorious top-ranking rebels that fell into the hands of the Army troopers were Glicerio Pernia, secretary general of the Bicol regional NPA committee, and Manuel Lola, a.k.a. ‘Jara’, formerly the commanding officer of the Sentro Defensa Grupo of the NPA operating in Camarines Sur.

        Pernia was arrested inside a cockpit in Sta. Maria, Bulacan last January 2008. Lola plunged to his death after trying to escape from pursuing government troopers in Libmanan, Camarines Sur last February 6, 2008.