A senior leader of the Communist New People’s Army (NPA) and eight of his comrades were slain in a two-hour fierce firefight with government forces in Nueva Ecija province, the military reported on Thursday.
Lieutenant Colonel Isagani Nato, the spokesman of the military’s Northern Luzon Command, identified the slain leader as Joey Manangan alias Ka Razul who headed the NPA forces operating in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Pangasinan.
Nato said the encounter which lasted for two hours from 8 am to 10 am on Wednesday, occurred in a remote “barangay” (village) in the town of Carranglan, Nueva Ecija.
“The villagers reported the presence of armed men in their community. The soldiers went to the area and that’s when the firefight started, “ Nato said, adding the soldiers confiscated assorted heavy weapons including a grenade launcher as well as improvised bombs from the scene.
The military noted the nine slain NPAs represented the biggest casualty suffered by the rebels since President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte ordered the suspension of the peace talks between the government and the insurgents in May.
The NPA, with about 4,000 members, is the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging a Maoist-style insurgency against the government for close to 50 years.
In Malacanang Palace, Secretary Ernesto Abella, the presidential spokesman, on Thursday noted that Duterte has reached out to the Maoists by initiating the resumption of peace talks.
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