New People's Army militants stormed a police headquarters on Saturday -- the second in just two days in the southern Philippines -- and seized weapons. About 30 rebels disarmed policemen guarding the headquarters in Misamis Occidental province. The raiders took a machine gun, an M203 grenade launcher, seven automatic rifles and nine hand guns from the police arsenal before escaping towards Zamboanga del Sur province. Troops sent to pursue the fleeing rebels clashed with the NPA band in Josefina town.
Captain Jefferson Somera said members of the 55th Infantry Battalion were dispatched to hunt down the militants. He said, "The fighting lasted over 25 minutes and we foiled the NPA plan to detonated landmines in the area to slow down the military pursuit."
He said in September, army troops killed a senior NPA commander, Henry Celajes, in a firefight in Misamis Occidental. Celajes was the NPA deputy secretary in western Mindanao.