NPA rebels ambush soldiers in Aurora after Angara visit

(Updated 11:50 p.m.) Suspected communist rebels fired at Army troopers who have just provided security to the visit of Senator Edgardo Angara in Aurora province Saturday afternoon, injuring one soldier, a military official said. Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang, commander of the Northern Luzon Command, said the attack happened around 1:30 p.m. at Barangay Nipoo, Dinalungan town. Maclang said soldiers from the 69th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, led by a certain 2Lt. Torres, were on their way back already to their base when undetermined number of suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels fired at them. Earlier, Angara laughed off reports he was ambushed in the province, while launching several government projects there. Angara told dzBB radio he was on a boat heading for Casiguran when the supposed ambush took place. "Walang katotohanan yan. Nakasakay kami sa barko papunta kami Casiguran (That's not true. We were on a ship heading for Casiguran)," he said. He said he never traveled by land in the area. Chief Supt. Errol Pan, Central Luzon police director, added in a separate interview that police and local military troops are now in pursuit of the attackers. "In pursuit ang aming mobile group at Army (Our police mobile group and the Army are in pursuit of the perpetrators)," he said. Radio reports said at least one soldier was wounded after suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels ambushed a group of soldiers near a place where a program was held and attended by Angara and his sister in the province on Saturday. Radio dzRH reported that neither Angara nor his sister, Gov. Bella Angara Castillo, was injured in the supposed attack on the event site. - GMANews.TV