Gov’t troops clash with Silay attackers

Army troopers clashed yesterday with a group of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels believed responsible for the attack on the construction site of an international airport in Silay City in Negros Occidental last Sunday.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said elements of the Army’s 61st Infantry Battalion clashed with about 40 guerrillas in Barangay Cruz, Calatrava town, about three hours away from the airport construction site in Silay City, at about 7:45 a.m.

Seized in the scene of the encounter were two M-16 rifles, a Brazilian FAL jet rifle, a shotgun, and several handheld radios.

Three hours later, another encounter took place in Barangay Tilin, also in Calatrava town, between government troops and the same NPA band.

No casualties were reported on both sides.

Maj. Ernesto Torres, Army spokesman, said ground commanders in the area were optimistic that the NPA group would be cornered soon.

Elite troops have been deployed in Silay City following the attack, which reportedly stemmed from the refusal of the Korean and Japanese contractors to pay "revolutionary taxes" to the NPA.

Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, Armed Forces public information chief, said elements of the 3rd Scout Ranger Company and the 11th and 61st Infantry Battalions are going after the NPA attackers.

He said the soldiers were working closely with the First and Second Provincial Mobile Groups of the Philippine National Police.

As a standard operating procedure, he said the Armed Forces has alerted all military units across the country to be on guard against similar NPA attacks.

At least 30 rebels destroyed P30 million worth of equipment of the airport contractors, including a concrete batching plant, and carted away the firearms of the project’s security personnel.

Esperon said a platoon of Army troopers have been deployed in the Silay City construction site as well as in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo.

The P4.3-billion airport being constructed in a 187-hectare site in Barangay Bagtic, Silay City is funded by a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.