Asia-Pacific

Leftist rebels seize policemen in S Philippines

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-01 13:17

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Leftist rebels in the southern Philippines raided a police checkpoint Tuesday, killing two people and seizing a policeman as they fled, the military said.

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A group of New People's Army (NPA) rebels stormed the police camp in the township of Trento in Agusan del Sur province in the country's restive south around 6:30 am and killed two people, said Lieutenant Colonel Medel Aguilar, spokesperson for the military's 10th Division.

A police officer, George Cabatin, was taken by the rebels as human shield to evade pursuing government troops, Aguilar added.

The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has been waging a guerrilla campaign in the countryside for more than four decades. The Philippine military estimates that there are some 4,700 NPA guerrilla fighters scattered in more than 60 provinces throughout the Southeast Asian country.

Formal peace talks between the Philippine government and the leftists bogged down in 2004 after the United States included the NPA and its parent body as foreign terrorist organizations.

In the latest development, the Philippine government and CPP-led National Democratic Front (NDF) agreed on Jan 18 in Norway to resume the formal peace negotiation from Feb 15 to 21, with the hope of completing it within 18 months.