Reds cart away guns in police station raid in Palawan

A group of armed men who identified themselves as New People’s Army (NPA) rebels raided a police detachment in Palawan on Thursday morning and carted away five assorted firearms, the police said. Palawan police director Senior Superintendent Aurelio Trampe told GMANews.TV that a group of communist rebels stormed a police community precinct in the coastal village of Santa Teresita in Dumaran at around 7:30 a.m Thursday. Trampe said that while the rebels did not hurt any of the four policemen on duty during the incident, they took away with them five firearms: two 9mm pistols, two .45 pistols and an M16 rifle. The men, reportedly numbering around 50, fled on foot to the nearby Roxas town after the incident, where groups of NPA members have previously been spotted. Trampe said initial investigation of the incident showed that the rebels were really after the weapons in the community precinct during the raid. Police investigators and elements of the Philippine Marines are currently conducting hot pursuit operations against the culprits. - Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMANews.TV