EIGHT armed men raided and burned a radio station founded by the party-list group Bayan Muna in the town proper of Baggao in Cagayan early Sunday morning, a police official said.
The men barged into the premises of Radio Cagayano DWRC at 2 a.m. Sunday and held at least six personnel, including the station manager Susan Mapa and technician Richard Remegio.
Jefferson Soriano, regional director of the Cagayan police, said the perpetrators later poured two bottles of "gasoline" around the radio station and set it on fire.
The men left, carting away seven cellular phones they confiscated from the personnel of the radio station.
Police said some of the personnel suffered minor injures as they escaped before the fire.
Soriano said the radio station, which is highly critical of the government and of the military, was totally razed by the fire. He placed the amount of property damaged at P1.5 million.
A report said the perpetrators fired their firearms during the raid as responding policemen recovered from the crime scene one burnt empty magazine for caliber .45 pistol and two empty shells and slugs for the same caliber.
Many Bayan Muna officers and members have been killed throughout the country since January 2001 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency. The party-list group has accused the military as responsible for the killings.
But the military said the killings, including those of officers and members of other militant groups, could have been perpetrated by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as part of a renewed effort to cleanse their ranks.
An interim body dubbed Task Force Usig formed by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno is looking into the killing. The task force is headed by National Police Deputy Chief for Operations Avelino Razon.
