2 NPA rebels killed in Laguna encounter

Army troops killed two suspected New People’s Army rebels in an encounter that broke in a hinterland barangay in Pila, Laguna yesterday morning.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Army spokesman, said the two-hour fighting at Ba­rangay Masiko, also resulted to the capture of a critically wounded rebel left behind by their fleeing colleagues.

The identities of the slain rebels are still being determined by responding operatives of the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives (PNP-SOCO).

Torres said elements of the 1st Infantry Battalion were conducting combat patrol when they chanced upon the rebels inside a house at about 8 a.m, triggering an intense gunbattle.

As fighting intensified, the strike force of the Laguna provincial police office was also mobilized forcing the rebels to flee in smaller groups.

Combined Army and police troops subsequently rescued two women inside the hut the rebels apparently used initially as their human shields.

Two are now under the custody of the Army troops for some questioning, Torres said.

Subsequently clearing operations resulted to the recovery of three high-powered firearms, two handguns and a homemade bomb.

Torres said the wounded rebel abandoned by his fleeing colleagues, was taken in critical condition to the hospital for treatment.

Relatedly, the communist leadership dismissed as pure psywar reports of the dismantling of 13 guerrilla fronts by the military as claimed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) spokesman, Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal in a press statement said the contrary is happening in the countryside.

“Bantay Laya had failed to destroy a single guerrilla front and that the NPA had increased the number of its fighters by seizing hundreds of firearms from the military troops,” Rosal said.

Further, the rebels shot the security guard of the Smart Communications tower hitting him on both legs, the report said.

The NPA, which has more than 5,000 members, often attacks economic targets as part of their efforts to raise funds for the 39-year-old Maoist insurgency, one of the world’s longest.