3 rebels, soldier die in Quezon firefight

MAGALLANES, Cavite — Three New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and an Army trooper were killed in a clash yesterday in Quezon, while two other guerrillas were captured in another encounter in Cavite.

Chief Superintendent Enrique Galang Jr., Calabarzon police director, said elements of the Army’s 74th Infantry Battalion, led by 1Lt. Ryan Charles Callanta, were on foot patrol at the boundary of San Andres and San Narciso towns in Quezon when about 30 NPA rebels fired at them at about 5 a.m.

Quoting a report from Senior Superintendent Ricardo Padilla, Quezon police director, Galang said the encounter resulted in the deaths of three rebels and Pfc. William Basilio.

Galang said the retreating rebels carried with them their slain comrades. Recovered from the clash site were three Armalite rifles and two generator sets.

Meanwhile, joint elements of the 202nd Infantry Brigade of the Army’s 4th Special Forces Battalion and the Cavite police captured two NPA rebels, one of them an amazon, after a brief firefight in Sitio Bancaan in Maragondon town at about 10 a.m. yesterday.

Lt. Col. Efren Orbon, commanding officer of the 202nd IB, identified the captured rebels as Angie Tingson and Rey Luzon.

Orbon was confident the captured rebels were involved in Monday’s ambush of an eight-man patrol team of the Magallanes police in Barangay Talipusngo, wounding four of the policemen.

Orbon said a joint police-military team, with the help of tracking dogs, located the rebels in four nipa huts in Sitio Bancaan, about two kilometers from Barangay Talipusngo.

The rebels engaged the government forces in a firefight, after which two of them were captured.

In another encounter, a 20-year-old NPA rebel identified as Leonardo Angid was wounded when he and his comrades shot it out with soldiers in Barangay Maling in Balbalan, Kalinga last Tuesday morning. — With Arnell Ozaeta and Artemio Dumlao