Communist guerrillas ambushed a police patrol in the central Philippines on Saturday, killing eight officers, a police spokesman said. New People's Army (NPA) rebels attacked the police as they investigated an unspecified shooting incident at a village on Samar island, said Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz. The police chief of Catarman city was with the convoy, but Cruz did not say if he was among the eight fatalities. The 5,000-member NPA has been waging a Maoist rebellion across much of the Philippines since 1969 that has left thousands of people dead.