Soldier killed in Isabela ambush

CAMP AQUINO, Tarlac — An Army trooper was killed and another seriously wounded in a New People’s Army (NPA) ambush last Saturday at the boundary of the Isabela towns of Jones, San Agustin and Echague.

In a report to Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, commanding officer of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), Maj. Gen. Samuel Bagasin of the 5th Infantry Division said the fatality, Cpl. Jaime Tumamao, and his wounded companion, a certain Pfc. Sobrepeña, both belonged to a platoon of the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion.

The victims were on board a military truck on their way to an "special operation" in Echague when NPA rebels waylaid them in Barangay Mabbayad-Villa Rey.

Dominguez said the ambushers belong to the NPA’s Benito Tesorio Command that is under the South Isabela Guerrilla Front of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-Cagayan Valley Regional Party Committee.

Four days earlier, guerrillas in Isabela held hostage for nearly eight hours provincial engineer Nicasio Tabago and his four staffers in San Mariano town.

Last Friday, the rebels seized and killed Pvt. Marlon Laggui, of the Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion, also in San Mariano town. — Benjie Villa