A ranking leader of a New People’s Army (NPA) unit operating
in the hinterlands of Sarangani and Davao del Sur provinces was reportedly
killed in an encounter with government troops in an upland village in Alabel
town in Sarangani on Monday.
Lt. Col. Felix Ronnie Babac, commander of the Army’s 73rd
Infantry Battalion, said Tuesday NPA commander Tolentino Bariquit alias Ka
Brigol was among the six rebels who were killed in the clash in Sitio Tugal,
Barangay Datal Anggas in Alabel at around 8 a.m. on Monday.
There were no recorded casualties on the government side as
result of the encounter.
Ka Brigol headed the NPA’s Front 71’s “Platoon Mazda” and
previously led the Front 74 of the rebel group’s Far South Mindanao Regional
Revolutionary Committee.
The official described the slain NPA leader as in his early
50s and among the active commanders of NPA units operating in the hinterland
villages of Alabel, Glan and Malapatan towns in Sarangani and Magsaysay town in
Davao del Sur.
“We were able to confirm his identity based on the
testimonies of local residents,” Babac said in a radio interview.
He said the five other fatalities were name by residents as
aliases JM, Mark, Lieutenant, Jonas and Monel.
Recovered from the encounter site some 20 back packs owned
by the rebels and nine high-powered firearms composed of six Armalite rifles,
two Ak-47 rifles and one “baby Armalite” rifle, he said.
Babac said their troops were conducting a peace and
development outreach activity in the village on Monday when they received
reports that a group of NPA rebels had encamped near the area.
He said local residents, who were mainly composed of poor
B’laan tribal folks, complained that the group had been regularly extorting
food supplies and other items from them.
Upon reaching the site, he said the rebels immediately fired
at their troops that resulted to a heavy firefight.
The official said the rebels, who were estimated at around
30 heavily-armed members, later withdrew from the scene towards the direction
of the Sarangani-Davao del Sur boundary.
“Our troops actually overrun a temporary encampment of the
NPA unit as a result of the operation,” he said.
Babac said that aside from the slain NPA rebels, they were
confirming reports that a number of them were also wounded during the
encounter.
He said their troops who were conducting clearing operations
in the area on Monday night confirmed that there heavy bloodstains at the
withdrawal route of the rebels.
Babac said there were no reported evacuations from among
local residents as a result of the Monday encounter.
He said they have sent additional troops to the area to
secure the residents and continue with their peace and development activities.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=736401
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