A policeman was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by communist rebels hit a unit of local police which was on its way to respond to a shooting incident in Uson town in Masbate province on Friday, police said Saturday.

The victim, Police Officer Celito Amistad, suffered shrapnel wounds when the IED exploded on the side of the road in Barangay (village) Badling, three kilometers away from the national road of Uson, at around 4 a.m.

After the explosion, the nine-man police team was engaged in a 20-minute firefight by more or less 80 suspected members of the New People's Army (NPA), Senior Police Officer 4 Manny Marcaida, the team leader, said.

"The exchange of fire between the NPA and government troops only lasted for twenty minutes and NPA fled to an unknown direction," Marcaida added.

Amistad is now in stable condition in MC Hospital in Masbate City where Chief Superintendent Melvin Ramon G. Buenafe, Bicol police director, awarded him with a Philippine National Police Merit Medal (Medalya ng Kagalingan) during his visit Saturday morning.