A New People's Army (NPA) fighter was killed while a police officer was hurt during an encounter in Barangay Cabidan-an,
Col. Joselito Kakilala, chief of the Philippine Army's 903rd Infantry Brigade, said the fallen rebel was one of the five NPA fighters who earlier took hostage five civilians in an attempt to foil pursuing soldiers.
He said the government troops were directed to ensure that there were no civilians who might be caught in the crossfire.
Earlier, the NPAs attempted to overrun a police security checkpoint in the barangay at around 7:30 p.m.
During the ensuing firefight, one policeman was wounded and one rebel was killed. The remaining NPA rebels scattered and fled.
Troops were able to pursue two of the fleeing rebels who holed up in a nearby compound, taking five hostages.
The five hostages were able to escape which gave the responding troops to immediately clear the compound.
The rebels managed to escape by piling up plastic soft drink cases and using these to climb the wall at the rear of the compound.
The civilian hostages were given stress debriefing by
Kakilala said the NPAs have reduced themselves into a criminal and lawless group by putting civilians in harm’s way as they try desperately to evade pursuing government forces.
Sorsogon is one of the remaining provinces that the AFP is targeting for normalization.
Currently, 43 of 75 NPA-affected provinces in the country have undergone “normalization” wherein local government units have taken the lead in local peace and security campaign.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=611428
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