NPA's torch Yellow Bus in South Cotabato
Local News • 21:23 PM Sun Nov 13, 2016
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By:
Edwin Fernandez
The ill-fated YBL bus unit being hauled to YBL depot in Koronadal City. (Amiel Cagayan)
KORONADAL CITY – Heavily armed New Peoples Army (NPA) guerillas torched before dawn Sunday
a bus of Yellow Bus Company in a remote village of Tupi, South Cotabato.
Supt. Romeo
Galgo, speaking for police in Central Mindanao region, said the burning of
Yellow Bus unit (Body number 77 and temporary plate number 1301-51080)
transpired at about 4:20 a.m. in Barangay Kablon, Tupi, South Cotabato,
about 50 kilometers east of here.
Citing report
from Tupi Municipal Police Office, Galgo said five men boarded the Gen. Santos
City-bound bus along the national highway in a bus stop in Crossing Polonuling and declared they were NPA members.
They directed
the driver to turn left toward an open field of pineapple plantation. After about
100 meters away from the national highway, more armed rebels were seen waiting.
Then the gunmen
ordered the passengers, including the driver, to alight. Other rebels poured gasoline inside and
around the air condition bus with body number 77.
Then they set
on fire the unit and fled deep into the forest of Mt. Matutum. The passengers were not harmed.
Responding
police and elements of the 27th Infantry Battalion failed to catch
up with the suspects who fled toward Mt. Matutum. Pursuit operations continue.
Police eyed
extortion as the motive of the burning of YBL unit, one of the many similar instances
the past years.