Army overruns NPA training camp in Negros

BACOLOD CITY — Soldiers of the Army’s 11th Infantry Battalion overran a training camp of the New People’s Army (NPA) after a fierce gunbattle near the boundary of Guihulngan, Negros Oriental and Isabela, Negros Occidental last Tuesday.

Two Army soldiers suffered minor injuries in the firefight. The military has not yet established if some rebels had been killed or wounded.

Col. Gregorio Fajardo, 11th IB commanding officer, said the fleeing NPA guerrillas left behind three belts of M-60 machine gun bullets, a generator set and a typewriter.

Fajardo said civilians had tipped off the 11th IB’s Charlie Company about the presence of the NPA camp in Barangay Balogo, Guihulngan town.

Maj. Nelson Gerona, civil-military operations officer of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, said makeshift huts converted into classrooms were found at the camp, which about 30 armed rebels had reportedly occupied.

After the pullout of the 66th Infantry Battalion, the 11th IB took over areas in northern and central Negros, while the 61st Infantry Battalion assumed jurisdiction over the whole southern portion of Negros Island.

Guerrillas of the NPA’s Larangan Gerilya 1 unit were monitored to be operating in Moises Padilla, Isabela and La Castellana towns in Negros Occidental, and Guihulngan and Canlaon City in Negros Oriental.

The military is now tapping even barangay tanods in far-flung areas in northern Negros to monitor the rebels’ activities.

Of the 600 barangays in Negros Occidental, 12 percent or 72 barangays are either under the influence of or infiltrated by the rebel movement.

On the other hand, 237 other barangays, or 39 percent, are threatened by NPA infiltration, military records show. — Antonieta Lopez