Bataan teener found dead

BALANGA CITY, Bataan — The body of an alleged salvage victim found in a rice field in Barangay Capitangan, Abucay town last Monday turned out to be the remains of an active member of the militant youth organization of the Communist breakaway group Rebolusyunariong Hukbong Bayan (RHB) operating in northern Bataan towns.

Chief Inspector Luisito Magnaye, police head of Bataan Intelligence and Investigation Branch (BIIB), identified the militant youth leader as Audie Bugay Lucero, 19, a college drop-out and resident of Barangay Daang Bago, Samal town, who allegedly belonged to the RHB’s youth section known as the Youth of New Democratic Front (YNDF).

Police told The STAR that the victim was believed to be one of the companions of Rolando de Guzman, alias Ka Rolly, a top RHB leader in Central Luzon, who was brought to a private hospital in this city Sunday night.

De Guzman, who is in critical condition at the Isaac and Catalina Medical Center (ICMC), is being treated for gunshot wounds on the left shoulder and abdomen sustained during an encounter between Army troopers and the RHB band in the coastal village of Guni, Lubao, Pampanga Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Lucero’s body was discovered by a farmer at about 6 a.m. last Monday.

The body of Lucero was reportedly dumped by still unidentified men some five meters away from the national highway in Barangay Capitangan, Abucay town. Lucero has three gunshot wounds on his left chest, left wrist and lower left knee.

A government intelligence unit conducting surveillance of several coastal villages of Lubao town, Pampanga had a 15-minute firefight with a group of heavily-armed RHB band led by De Guzman last Sunday morning.

An intelligence officer under the Army’s 24th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Camacho, Balanga City reportedly died in the encounter.