2 killed as NPA rebels attack Agusan checkpoint

BUTUAN CITY — Bad weather failed to discourage suspected communist rebels to attack a forest product revenue monitoring checkpoint in Agusan del Sur early morning Tuesday, killing two civilian volunteers and wounding two policemen. Police suspect the attackers were members of the New People’s Army (NPA) Front Committee 20 operating in Northern Mindanao. Reports reaching the Caraga Police Regional Office identified the fatalities as Fritz Dimzon, 20, and Carlito Tumandang, 39, both civilian volunteers assigned at the checkpoint located at Barangay Pulang Lupa in Trento town. The wounded police personnel, on the other hand, were identified as PO3 Jorge Sabating and PO3 Mario Savellano. The report said the attack lasted for 15 minutes after which the rebels fled to unknown direction. The attack occurred as the police in the region were busy assisting victims of the floods and landslides that recently ravaged the province due to days on end of nonstop rain. The government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), are set to resume negotiations this month in Norway in hopes to end the decades-old insurgency problem. The NPA is the armed wing of the CPP. - Ben Serrano/KBK, GMANews.TV