4 soldiers, 2 rebels killed in separate skirmishes

From the Manila Times  (May 20): 4 soldiers, 2 rebels killed in separate skirmishes

GOVERNMENT troops and members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) have engaged in three separate encounters, leaving four soldiers and two rebels dead.

Maj. Angelo Guzman, spokesman of 9th Infantry Division (ID), said on Monday that as of 2 p.m. the firefight between elements of the 2nd Infantry Battalion and the insurgents were still ongoing at Sitio Sta. Lucia in Barangay Maninila, Camalig Albay province, where the unfinished Southern Luzon International Airport is located.

According to Guzman, a squad of soldiers were on patrol when a landmine exploded, followed by a volley of gunfire from NPAs that resulted in the death of three soldiers and injury to another.

The soldiers also lost three high-powered firearms, a K3 squad automatic weapon and two M16 rifles.

“The firefight is still ongoing, There are still sporadic firefights,” Guzman said, adding that the soldiers were on patrol following intelligence report that the rebels would attack the said airport, which is expected to be finished by 2015 or 2016.

The unfinished airport, he added, was also attacked last year by the rebels—they burned hundreds of millions worth of properties of the contractor for refusal to pay revolutionary taxes.

“We were able to foil the attack. They could have destroyed again another millions worth of equipment in the area,” Guzman further said.

The two other encounters occurred in Surigao del Norte and in Misamis Oriental.

1Lt. Joe Patrick Martinez, commanding officer of 42nd Civil Military Operations Company, 4ID, said that troops from the 42nd Division Reconnaisance Company of the 4th ID, were on a pursuit operation when engaged by members of the NPA Gueilla Front 16, North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee at the hinterland barangay of Cabugao in Claver, Surigao del Norte.

Government forces conducted the said pursuit operation after an earlier encounter between the 30th Infantry Battalion and said NPA group at Sitio Pamyunon, Barangay Sapa, also in Claver, where the Army suffered one casualty.

“This time, two NPAs were killed and the troops recovered one M16 and one AK 47 rifle,” Martinez said.

He added that government troops also saw the NPAs carrying their wounded comrades as they fled towards the west and north of the encounter site.

Over in Sitio Tongo, Barangay Tingaan, Salay, Misamis Oriental, troops also engaged some 20 rebels in a 10-minute firefight.

Maj. Leo Bongosia, spokesman of 4th ID, said that there were no reported casualties from both sides but the rebels left behind a rifle scope, six magazines of AK 47 with ammunitions, 10 magazines for M14 with ammunitions, two magazines for M16, four cellular phones, assorted medicines, cooking paraphernalia, five pairs of rain boots, slippers, assorted dry cell batteries, rice, canned goods, seven backpacks and subversive documents.
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