LEGAZPI CITY – Four policemen were killed in an ambush staged by heavily-armed men believed to be New People’s Army (NPA) rebels at Barangay Uga, Pandan, Catanduanes at around 6 a.m. Saturday, according to a spot report reaching Police Regional Office (PRO) 5 at Camp Gen. Simeon Ola here.

        Police Insp. Nilo Abines, Pandan police chief, identified the slain policemen as SPO1 Joseph Evangelista of Brgy. Uga, Pandan town, PO3 Juan Dominguez, PO2 Noli Lopez and PO1 Daryl Parado, 29, of Rapu-rapu, Albay.

        Abines said that around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, he received a report that three unidentified men had gunned down SPO1 Joseph Evangelista inside his house at Brgy. Uga, about 600 meters away from the Municipal Police Station of Pandan.

        After learning of the shooting incident, Abines said he organized a responding team composed of eight men on board four motorcycles plus other cops on foot. Abines was on the third motorcycle.

        But when they reached near Evangelista’s house, they were ambushed by an undetermined number of NPA guerillas who were armed with M203, M60 and cal. . 30 among other firearms.

        “After a three-minute firefight. Three of my responding team lay dead. Outnumbered and outgunned, we had no other recourse but to withdraw,” he told Bombo Radyo-Legazpi in a long distance mobile phone interview.

        No casualties were reported on the enemy side but Abines said they saw bloodstains in the withdrawal route of the enemy.

        A source at Camp Ola said that Pandan, the northernmost town of the island province of Catanduanes, has not patrol car for mobility.

        The Pandan MPS lost to the rebels one M14, two M16 rifles and the cal. .45 pistol of Evangelista.

        As this developed, Camp Ola dispatched two choppers of policemen to the area to reinforce the pursuit operation.