NPA killed in clashes with Ecija troops

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines  – Another New People’s Army rebel was killed when government troops encountered a nine-man NPA band in Rizal, Nueva Ecija over the weekend.

Sunday’s encounter brought to 10 the number of NPA fatalities since the armed engagements broke out three weeks ago.

Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade said his men and those of Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano, commander of the 71st Infantry Battalion, encountered the rebels in Barangay Gen. Luna, Rizal Nueva Ecija at around 8:45 a.m. Sunday which also resulted to the seizure of one M-16 Armalite rifle, medical kit and subversive documents.

The slain rebel was identified as a certain “Billong.”

Bautista said the military is winning the war against communist insurgents in Nueva Ecija as evidenced by the recent setbacks of the NPAs in the series of encounters.

Feliciano said their men will spare no efforts in running after the NPAs. He said that the group that they encountered Sunday was part of the band that was cornered by the military in the hinterlands of Pantabangan. 

The military operations, which started Jan. 26, had displaced 100 families in Pantabangan. The operations were instigated when the NPA ambushed 71st IB troops on the same day in Kilometer 5 of Pantabangan. Five rebels were killed in Bongabon town and three others in Barangay Galintuja, Ma. Aurora, Aurora on Thursday. 

On Saturday, Bautista presented eight former NPAs to Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, commanding general of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based at the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation in Palayan City.

Of the eight, two were the ones involved in NPA operations in Aurora province, according to 702nd IB information officer, Maj. Carmelito Pangatungan.    

NPA rebels are still holed up in Ma. Aurora, Alfonso Castañeda, Nueva Vizcaya; Barangay Villarica in Pantabangan and Barangay Calaanan in Bongabon, both in Nueva Ecija.