LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Communist guerrillas claimed responsibility over the killing of four soldiers and hurting five others in the second firefight with government troopers in Kalinga on May 15, six days after three troopers were killed when they were ambushed in Tabuk, Kalinga while enroute to deliver precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
The Cordillera police, however, said only three were hurt and that the Marcial Daggay Front (MDF) of the Lejo Cawilan Command of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Party Committtee of the CPP-NPA in Kalinga said soldiers were waylaid along the road near the Ayaya Waiting Shed in Sitio Sidog, Barangay Limos, Pinukpuk, Kalinga.
According to Tipon Gil-ayab, spokesperson of the Kalinga NPA command, the casualties were all from the newly- transferred 17th Infantry Battalion.
Lt. Col. Alvin Flores, commanding officer of the 17th IB, based in Kapanikian, Camalog, also in Pinukpuk, confirmed that only three of his troops were wounded.