NPA amazon killed in Mindoro encounter

CALAPAN CITY – A woman member of the New People’s Army was confirmed killed as operating troops of the Philippine Army here clashed with more than 20 communist rebels in a remote village in Baco, Oriental Mindoro Sunday morning.

In a report from the Philippine Army’s 203rd Brigade under the 2nd Infantry Division which is based in Naujan town, it was learned that the woman rebel killed was identified as a certain Ka Emy, believed to be a member of the NPA’s guerilla troops operating in the northern part of this island province.

Meanwhile, Lt. Celeste Frank Sayson, public information officer of the 2nd ID, told newsmen that a non-enlisted Army man sustained injuries during the said firefight. Sayson named the injured soldier as Private First Class (PFC) Harold Garcia.

Accordingly, the government operating troops, led by 2nd Lieutenants Edzel Bellosillo and Ronald Gambot, encountered the fully armed rebels while conducting clearing operation in the forested area of Sitio Asico, Barangay Bangkatan, Baco town, Oriental Mindoro, at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

The firefight lasted for almost one hour after which, the terrorists withdrew toward different directions. Aside from the casualty on the NPA side, the Army troopers destroyed an M16 rifle of their enemies. They also recovered a back pack containing subversive documents and one binocular.

Sayson said they expected that the communist terrorists suffered undetermined number of casualties because of blood stains seen at the rebels’ defensive position and route of withdrawal during the government force’s assault and hot pursuit operations.

“The NPA’s presence in the area of Baco is believed to be part of their massive recovery activities on lost mass bases and logistical recovery efforts through massive extortion especially to big establishments in this area and its adjacent highly developed municipality-the Puerto Galera. The skirmish is a result of the information provided by a reliable civilian source,” the Philippine Army official said.

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political umbrella, the National Democratic Front (NDF). It has been fighting the Philippine government from the countryside since the late 1960s.

In Mindoro Island, it has been tagged in the series of bomb attacks on mobile phone relay stations and police stations in the provinces.   – With Arnell Ozaeta