8 rebs slain in Batangas encounter

Eight suspected communist rebels, including three women, were killed while a policeman was critically wounded in an encounter before noon yesterday in the outskirts of Batangas City.

The slain rebels, whose bodies were brought to the provincial police office, remain unidentified.

Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay, acting Batangas police director, said a police patrol unit, led by Chief Inspector Martillano Villafranca, head of the 402nd police mobile group, chanced upon the guerrillas in Barangay Haliging Kanluran, several kilometers away from the Batangas City proper at about 11:45 a.m.

Seriously wounded in the firefight was SPO3 Nicolas Closa.

Policemen recovered five M-16 and two M-14 rifles, two Carbines, one caliber .38 revolver, radio transceivers, bomb-making paraphernalia, binoculars and subversive documents from the slain rebels. — Jaime Laude