Communist guerrillas disguised as army troops rescued nine suspected rebels in a daring raid on a jail south of Manila, officials and a rebel spokesman said yesterday. At least four other inmates escaped during the attack. No shots were fired and no one was hurt, police said. Police separately captured three of the escapees a few hours after the late-Saturday raid by the New People's Army at the Batangas City provincial jail, and government forces were hunting down the rest, according to city police Chief Superintendent Nilo Anzo.At least 20 guerrillas in black military black fatigues arrived at the jail in three vans, pretending to turn over an arrested criminal in handcuffs and an orange detainee shirt to jail officials. Once inside the jail, they disarmed and tied up five guards at gunpoint, then announced the rescue, Anzo said. The guerrillas raised their rifles and shouted, "Who are the NPAs here?" and then used crowbars to break the padlocks on three cells, Anzo said by telephone. The guerrillas and freed inmates, two of them women, left in the vans without firing a shot or hurting anybody, taking seven pistols and a shotgun from the jail and guards, Anzo said. Four inmates facing drug charges escaped during the commotion but government troops recaptured three of them near the jail and a nearby city, he said.
Communist rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal congratulated the guerrillas for the successful mission, saying it showed the rebels' ability to launch delicate operations in a key city. The jail is located near the police headquarters in the busy port city of Batangas, about 55 miles south of Manila.