3 soldiers hurt in clash with NPA

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Three soldiers were hurt in fresh clashes between communist rebels and government security forces in a remote Kalinga village early Wednesday.

Only named so far as Sgt. Cabiliza and Privates First Class Lancay and Viray, the troopers from Bravo Company of the 17th Infantry Battalion were on their way to barangay Allaguia, Pinukpuk town when they encountered rebels at 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

Cordillera police said the soldiers were conducting area security operations at Barangay Baay and were heading to Allaguia when the fighting erupted at Sitio Sidog, Barangay Limos.

The wounded soldiers were brought to the hospital and the government troops are pursuing the rebels, police said.

Last Thursday morning, rebels ambushed election officers and army troopers carrying precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in Tabuk City.

Army Col. Roger Salvador, commanding officer of the Kalinga-based 501st Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army said the ambush site where two army troopers were killed and six others were wounded is just 23 kilometers away from the Kalinga provincial capitol.

Philippine Army Corporals Wilfredo Bacacao and Allen Pattaguan died after the identified New Peoples' Army rebels opened fire at the convoy of Comelec personnel aided by soldiers from 17th Infantry Battalion in Sitio Pasiking, Barangay Bagumbayan, Tabuk City.

Six other soldiers from the 17th IB- Technical Sergeant Herminigildo Vergara; Constante Alupani; Rico dela Cuesta; Staff Sergeants Michael Adducul; Sgt. Wayne Aguinaldo; and Private First Class  Delfin Goyagoy were all brought to the hospital.

Salvador remains tight-lipped about the security challenge posed by the NPAs so near the capital of the province, that authorities earlier were thinking of handing over counter-insurgency operations to policemen.

Tipon Gil-ayab, spokesperson of the Kalinga-based Lejo Cawilan Command of the Communist Party of the Philippines- NPA in a statement admitted rebels launched the Thursday attack as a “punitive action” against “Philippine Army units dispatched in areas believed to be strongholds of the NPA.”

Gil-ayab said such actions by government troopers were aimed at “malign(ing) and defeat(ing) legal and progressive party lists, in clear violation of COMELEC (Commission on Elections) guidelines.”

According to the NPA, soldiers have been destroying campaign paraphernalia of these partylists, and are posting materials against the same, citing, “since May 4, Philippine Army units were deployed in Lubuagan; and since May 8 in Barangays Balantoy, Poblacion, and Mabaca of Balbalan; Asibanglan, Pinukpuk; Guinaang and Bagtayan, Pasil, among others.”

The rebel spokesperson also lashed at Army Col. Loreto Magundayao of the Isabela-based 5th Infantry Division as “a big liar” for claiming that the ambush took place on the morning of May 9, 2013, and that the army unit was part of a convoy of the Philippine National Police and Comelec delegation, dispatched to deliver PCOS machines in Lubuagan. “The AFP is covering-up a tactical error, and is using the May 13 elections to villify the NPA, depicting the real people’s army as “enemies of democracy”. 

Gil-ayab also claimed the 17th IB (was) also spreading lies in Kalinga that the ambush was planned by progressive partylists, and a vice-gubernatorial candidate.

The NPA spokesperson further vowed they will “continue to launch tactical offensives against the AFP (Armed Fores of the Philippines) and PNP,” even during the elections as he claimed these state security forces “are the primary instruments of the Aquino regime in mocking so-called democratic processes such as elections, the main culprits in perpetrating human rights violations and the security forces of big business interests in the province such as corporate mining, and geothermal and hydro-electric projects.”

He further warned, “we will intensify attacks because of the Aquino Regime’s junking of the peace talks between the NDFP and the GPH.”

The Kalinga NPAs however have not sent any word about Wednesday dawn’s clash.