UP music grad killed in NPA clash in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY — A University of the Philippines (UP) alumna, allegedly a cadre of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), was killed in a fierce gunbattle with government troopers in Guinobatan, Albay early last Sunday, the military said.

Col. Dante Bonifacio, commander of the Army’s 202nd Infantry Brigade, identified the alumna as Ma. Gracela Miranda, 25, a graduate of the UP College of Music in Diliman, Quezon City.

Bonifacio said Miranda’s body was found by barangay councilman Purita Oblasca in Sitio Calupigan in Barangay Bulolo a day after the encounter where two soldiers were also killed.

Miranda, a resident of Barangay Sagpon in Daraga town, had shrapnel wounds in the back which the military believes she sustained during the gunbattle between the NPA and four Army companies.

Bonifacio said Miranda was among the guerrillas who were killed when MG-520 helicopter gunships strafed the NPA camp on a hilly and thickly forested area of Barangay Bulolo.

Bonifacio said Sgt. Avelino Lalugan and Cpl. Filomeno Pon of the 22nd Infantry Battalion were also killed in the incident.

The military said the NPA were then conducting an "intermediate party course" for its cadres at the camp.

In other developments, two policemen were killed while a third cop was wounded in another encounter with NPA guerrillas in Tubili Palauan, Mindoro Occidental the other day.

Police said PO3 Edmund Rimando and PO2 Edgar Dangupon were killed while PO2 Leopoldo Anglo was wounded when NPA rebels ambushed them.— With Christina Mendez