Full police, military escort up for medical mission under Reds' threat
A team of doctors, nurses and other volunteers off to Leon, Iloilo for a medical mission today will be fully secured by both the police and the military.
This, after safety concerns heightened amidst intelligence report on a major sabotage by communist terrorists in the district.
The News Today (TNT) in a report disclosed the supposed plan hatched by the local hierarchy of the Communist Party of the Philippnes (CPP). A tipster and party insider raised the alarm following a purported elaborate operation to set up landmines in the route of the medical mission team.
Targeted area was an undisclosed portion of the Barangay Buntalan to Barangay Durog road network. As it is, the entire stretch of the road network here suffered major damage brought by Typhoon Frank in June.
"Better to be safe than sorry," said Captain Lowen Gil Marquez, commanding officer of the 3rd Civil Relations Group of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). "So we tapped our local police and army soldiers to augment the medical team's security."
Yet the AFP also worked overnight to validate additional concerns from civilian informants.
"It could also be a "divertionary landmine" since we have information that the communist terrorists want to attack somewhere in the Municipality of Tubungan in Southern Iloilo or a barangay in the Municipality of Alimodian in the Second District," Captain Marquez added.
Captain Marquez in confirming the reported communist offensive said the planners are remaining hardcore communist terrorists in the district bent on sabotaging the medical mission.
The attack, he said, involved an elaborate plan to bury landmines in a major road section of the town.
The Buntalan-Durog road network is the only link of commuters from the Poblacion town proper towards the famed Bucari community. It was also one of the hardest hit barangays during Typhoon Frank with the major bridge in Barangay Buntalan damaged.
To date, a makeshift alternate route serves as main passage of all commuters with at least a hundred vehicles passing daily including tricycles and passenger jeepneys.