A junior military officer and another soldier were slain when communists New People’s Army (NPA) rebels detonated a land mine during an encounter with government forces in Agusan del Sur province in restive Mindanao.
First Lieutenant Tere Ingente, an Army division spokesman, reported that two other soldiers were wounded in the clash that occurred in a “barangay” (village) in the town of Bayugan, Agusan del Sur over the weekend.
Ingente identified the slain officer as First Lieutenant Rod Michael Aspiras who was leading a team of soldiers while on security patrol when they encountered the rebels, described as heavily-armed.
During the intense firefight, the insurgents detonated a landmine that killed Aspiras, a sergeant and wounded two other soldiers, according to Ingente.
Ariel Montero, the spokesman of the NPA Northeastern Mindanao Regional Command, claimed they detonated the landmine to send a message to President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte who delivered his third state-of-the-nation address before a joint session of Congress on Monday.
Montero did not elaborate but he was apparently referring to Duterte’s decision to stop the formal resumption of formal talks on June 29 with the rebels represented by their political arm the National Democratic Front (NDF) with Norway as the third party facilitator.
Significantly, Duterte did not mention the stalled peace talks in his address before Congress, his third, since he took over Malacanang Palace in June 2016.
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