Kalinaw News: 5 NPAs killed in an encounter today in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato

Posted to Kalinaw News (Dec 2, 2020): 5 NPAs killed in an encounter today in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato



A military-police team killed five members of the New People’s Army, one of them a regional rebel leader, in an encounter Wednesday in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said NPA members Romeo Libron and spouse Merly, Rogelio Magsaya, and two others initially identified only as Macoy and Megan, died from bullet wounds in different parts of their bodies.

Municipal officials and community leaders in Lake Sebu, a hinterland town in South Cotabato, have confirmed that Libron was chief of the NPA’s self-styled regional ordnance unit for Southern Mindanao region.

Libron’s group was tagged in recent bombings in central Mindanao of buses, construction equipment and business establishments whose owners refused to shell out “protection money” on periodic basis.

Personnel of the Lake Sebu municipal police and the 5th Special Forces Battalion were to serve warrants from local courts for the arrest of Libron and his companions but the operation went awry when resisted and opened fire, provoking a gunfight.

Members of the 5th SF Battalion, a unit of the 601st Infantry Brigade under 6th ID, and policemen were forced to return fire, killing the five NPAs in the ensuing encounter.

Libron is wanted for heinous offenses, including multiple murder, extortion and arson.

In a report to 6th ID, Brig. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of 601st Brigade, said soldiers found in the hideout of the slain NPAs a Carbine rifle, an M16 rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, a 9 millimeter Glock 19 pistol, two improvised explosive devices and components for IEDs.

Uy said he has directed the 5th SF Battalion to guard against possible retaliations by the NPA for the death of Libron and his four companions.

The firearms and explosives found in the hideout of the five slain rebels are now in the custody of the Lake Sebu municipal police.

[Kalinaw News is the official online source of information on the pursuit for peace in the Philippines This website is a property of the Civil-Military Operations Regiment, Philippine Army located at Lawton Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. Contact us: kalinawnews@cmoregiment.com]

https://www.kalinawnews.com/5-npas-killed-in-an-encounter-today-in-lake-sebu-south-cotabato/