Six suspected communist rebels, including a female fighter, were killed following a firefight that started Tuesday evening and lasted until early Wednesday, a regional military commander said.
Col. Henry Sabarre, commander of the Army's 703rd Brigade, said the encounter between elements of the 3rd Mechanized Brigade and local police and about nine New People's Army rebels started 10 p.m. Tuesday and lasted until 6 a.m. Wednesday.
The clash occurred in Barangay Bubong II in Camiling town in Tarlac, Sabare said.
The operating troops recovered seven high-powered firearms, he added.
Earlier, Sabarre placed the number of rebel fatalities at seven, but was later informed that a backpack buried in the ricefield was mistaken for a body of a slain insurgent.
In a radio dzBB interview, Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command public affairs officer Capt. Gina Daet said pursuit operations are still ongoing, even as no government casualties have been reported so far.
Daet cited initial information indicating the female fatality was a "front secretary" and a "leader" of the rebel group.
She added that the NolCom was tipped off by local residents to the presence of the suspected NPAs in the area Tuesday night.
Peace talks
In April, the Philippine government announced that it will no longer return to the negotiating table with the National Democratic Front, saying that the talks were "going nowhere" after a 22-month impasse.
NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, for his part, said that it was the Aquino administration, not the communist-led group, which "dimmed" the prospects of peace due to the government's supposed refusal to hold its end up on agreements signed by both parties decades ago.
The armed struggle being pursued by the Communist Party of the Philippines, through its armed wing, the NPA, is one of Asia's longest running insurgencies, spanning more than four decades.
The Philippine government is currently studying a "new approach" to the peace process with communist insurgents, but details on this approach has yet to be finalized.
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