Army scores against NPA rebels

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 24): Army scores against NPA rebels

Soldiers from the 8th Infantry Battalion engaged a group of armed New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in a 40 minute firefight in Bukidnon Wednesday morning, an army report said Thursday. Lt. Col. Eugenio Julio Osias Jr., spokesperson of the army’s Fourth Infantry Division here, said that the army soldiers were on patrol when they encountered about 10 armed NPA rebels in the hinterlands of Halapitan, San Fernando, Bukidnon about 5:30 Wednesday morning.

He said an informant tipped the soldiers of the presence of NPA rebels reportedly conducting force taxation and collecting food stuff from the poor farmers in the area. Osias said the responding soldiers were on routine patrol when informed of the presence of the NPA rebels resulting in the 40-minute firefight.  Recovered from the scene was a US Springfield Single Shot garand rifle with a defaced serial number, four rounds of live ammunitions, and assorted subversive documents. Osias said that no casualty was reported on the government side "though it was not clear whether the NPA suffered casualties, too."
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=490495