RHB rebel slain in gunbattle

LUBAO, Pampanga — A suspected communist guerrilla was killed in a 45-minute running gunbattle between joint elements of the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion and 3rd Military Intelligence Group and men of the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB) reportedly caught extorting money from fishpond owners and fisherfolk here last Saturday.

Lt. Col. Preme Monta, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), said the firefight in Barangay San Rafael Baruya, which started at about 10 a.m., resulted in the killing of suspected RHB member Henry Blando alias Ka Jeff.

The RHB is the armed wing of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP), which broke away from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1998.

The RHB has been at odds with the CPP’s New People’s Army (NPA) in gaining dominance in remote barangays in Central Luzon.

Monta said the RHB group, led by one Ka Joshua, apparently suffered other casualties.

In Tarlac, Monta said elements of the Army’s 48th Infantry Battalion clashed with about 15 armed NPA rebels in Barangay Cabaluyan, San Clemente town last Thursday.

He said the soldiers found three M-16 magazines, subversive documents and backpacks containing personal belongings of the rebels.

The rebels, he said, apparently suffered casualties in the clash as evidenced by bloodstains on their escape route.

Meanwhile, Pampanga probers are looking into reports that the RHB was behind the summary execution of at least eight suspected drug pushers across the province. — Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu