(Update) Body of slain rebel recovered in Iloilo ambush site

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 19): (Update) Body of slain rebel recovered in Iloilo ambush site

The body of a slain rebel has been recovered by soldiers in the ambush site in Brgy. Mayang, Tubungan, Iloilo.

Major Ray Tiongson, spokesman of the 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division, Philippine Army based at Camp Macario Peralta, Jamindan, Capiz, said army authorities are presently in the process of identifying the cadaver of the rebel insurgent who was killed late Thursday afternoon in a brief firefight between government forces and the enemy in the hinterland town of Tubungan.

It can be recalled that soldiers of the 82nd Infantry Battalion was ambushed by a group of armed men believed to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels at 4:00 Thursday afternoon somewhere in Brgy. Mayang, Tubungan.

Tiongson said the convoy of army soldiers along with members of an international humanitarian organization came from a medical mission in barangays of the neighboring Leon, Iloilo and on their way back to the army headquarters in Camp Monteclaro, Miag-ao when waylaid and fired upon by the armed rebels.

Luckily, the enemy bullets missed their targets, forcing the government forces to engage the rebel ambushers in a brief exchange of gun fires that lasted for five minutes before the enemy was forced to withdraw.

The army soldiers gave chase but pursuing government forces failed to catch up with the fleeing enemy.

Meanwhile, soldiers who scoured the vicinity of the encounter scene later stumbled on the body of the slain rebel. They also recovered a 12-gauge shotgun and empty shells of M16 armalite rifle in the ambush site.

On the other hand, the government forces suffered two casualties and another wounded in Thursday afternoon's encounter with NPA rebels in Sitio Madaja, Brgy. Buenavista, Himamaylan City across Negros Occidental.

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) has identified the casualties as Cpl. Napoleon Surpresencia and Pfc. Henry Lumio Jr. while the wounded trooper Pfc Leland Sucarte, all assigned at the 47th Infantry Battalion based in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental.

NOPPO report said a team of 47th IB soldiers was conducting bayanihan outreach activities in the said area when they encountered the group of heavily armed rebels that saw a 30-minute fierce gunbattle resulting to death of two troopers and wounding of another.

Augmentation forces from the 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Minoyan, Murcia, Negros Occidental also dispatched augmentation forces to track down the fleeing rebels who carted away two M16 armalite rifles and bandoleers of slain troopers.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=664101