2 Marines ambushed in Palawan

MANILA, Philippines - Two Marine soldiers, including a young lieutenant, were critically wounded Friday in an ambush staged by suspected New People’s Army rebels in San Vicente, Palawan.

Reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo identified the wounded Marine soldiers as 2Lt. Willy Pait and Cpl. Zeus Labrador of the Special Operations Platoon (SOP), Marine Battalion Landing 8 (MBLT-8).

Maj. Neil Estrella, MBLT-8 spokesman, said the soldiers were aboard a two-vehicle military convoy when ambushed by the rebels in the vicinity of Sitio Itabiak, Barangay Agutaya at around 10 a.m. the other day.

Estrella said that rebels numbering to about 30 fully armed men, initially used an improvised explosive in hitting the Marine convoy.

Despite the treacherous assault, the wounded Pait rallied his men in holding their ground, triggering several minutes of heavy gunfight.

Pait and his men subsequently outmaneuvered the rebels forcing them to withdraw with their wounded comrades.

The soldiers were in the outskirts of San Vicente to scout for an area wherein they intend to establish their unit’s advance command post.

Also on Friday, the communist guerrillas based in Northern Luzon, wiped out an entire Army squad to include their company commander in an ambushed in Bondoc, Mt. Province

The slain soldiers were on their way to a meeting in Bontoc for a planned medical mission yesterday when attacked by about 20 NPA rebels.

The twin NPA-initiated attacks came at a time when the new military leadership again set a three-year timeline to finish the country’s long-running insurgency problem.