3 rebels killed in Mindoro pursuit

Three communist rebels were killed in the military’s pursuit operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) unit that killed a Bulacan board member and an Army soldier in an ambush in Sta. Cruz, Mindoro Occidental last Friday.

Col. Elmer Quiros, battalion commander of the Army’s 80th Infantry Brigade, identified two of the slain rebels as Percival Relyon, alias Ka Moron, and Ronaldo Salmoring, alias Ka Louie, both belonging to the NPA’s Lucio de Guzman Command.

The third fatality, a woman, remains unidentified.

Quiros said the three rebels were killed in a series of skirmishes in Sitios Barogante and Alacaap in Sta. Cruz town and at the boundary of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, just at the foot of Mount Halcon.

Last Friday, Bulacan second district board member Warlito Trinidad and Pfc. Angelo Ray Barrios of the 80th IB were killed when some 30 rebels waylaid them. — Arnell Ozaeta, Jaime Laude