Two Army soldiers were killed following a clash with suspected communist rebels in the southern Philippine province of Surigao del Sur Monday, a regional military spokesperson said Tuesday.
In a text message to reporters, Major Leo Bongosia of the Army's 4th Infantry Division said that about 2 p.m. Monday, patrolling troops encountered an undetermined number of New People's Army rebels at Sitio Tibog in Barangay San Isidro in Lianga town.
The firefight lasted for five minutes, Bongosia said, adding that the rebels suffered no casualties.
"It was a meeting engagement. The soldiers were on combat operation when the two sides saw each other," Bongosia said of the clash, the latest between government security forces and communist rebels.
Only last week, three Army soldiers were killed while another one was wounded in a clash with insurgents in San Agustin town also in Surigao del Sur.
But the biggest government setback this year against the communist rebels came on May 27 when eight elite members of the Philippine National Police's Special Action Force were killed in an ambush in the northern province of Cagayan.
Seven other SAF members were wounded in the incident. Two police intelligence officers have since been relieved from their posts following the deadly ambush.
The clashes occurred as peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front remain at a standstill.
“We would like to have a peace agreement with them but it is not us which is the stumbling block to the peace process,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing Monday.
Earlier, representatives of the NPA decried the government’s alleged failure to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (Carhrihl) signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) in 1998.
Lacierda said the government has never violated the agreement.
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