Army recovers firearms in Samar encounter

From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 23): Army recovers firearms in Samar encounter
 
Elements of the Army’s 87th Infantry Battalion have encountered on Friday morning about 10 members of the communist’s armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) in Barangay Bugho, Pinabacdao, Samar.

“Acting upon information given by a concerned citizen in Barangay Bugho about the NPA presence in the vicinity of their barangay, Capt. Tuguinay Agoy, the commanding officer of 87th IB’s Alpha Company formed a combat platoon to verify the information,” said Lt. Col. Cerilo Balaoro, 87th IB commander.

“When Capt. Agoy and his troops arrived in the area where the NPAs were reported to be harboring, they were fired upon and an encounter ensued for about 15 minutes until the NPAs withdrew,” Balaoro said.

It was learned the NPA rebels belonged to the Section Committee-Southern Samar I of the Samar Provincial Party Committee.

The encounter resulted to the recovery of the following enemy materiel—one M16 armalite rifle, one M653 baby armalite rifle as well as three loaded magazines of AK 47 rifle with 100 extra live ammunition, seven empty magazines for M16 rifle and NPA documents.

No one was hurt on both sides.

Maj. Gen. Gerardo T. Layug, commander of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division congratulated the troops who conducted the successful combat operation.

“I assure the people that we will continue in clearing the interior barangays in the region from NPA influence so that LGUs can implement their programs and be able to provide basic services for the people,” Layug said in a statement.

“The chief executives of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran and Eastern Samar already declared their respective provinces as manageable conflict affected areas and ready for development and are now focusing on economic programs that will alleviate their people from poverty,” Layug added.

“On the same token, the local chief executives of the provinces of Samar and Northern Samar are currently working with other peace stakeholders for their provinces to be declared as manageable conflict affected areas and ready for development so that they can also focus on development programs they have crafted for their people. On our part, we assure the chief executives of these provinces that we will provide security for their programs to be implemented without interruption,” Layug said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=537188