NPA says gov't trooper killed in Abra town attack

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet  --  New People's Army rebels claim they killed one soldier in an early Sunday morning attack in a Philippine Army detachment in remote Malibcong town in Abra.

Army Captain Regie Go, spokesperson of the Abra-based 41st Infantry Batallion has yet to confirm the NPA's claim.

Ka Danreb Bringgas, spokesperson of the NPA North Abra Procopio Tauro Front said an NPA team under the Agustin Begnalen Command killed a soldier in a three-minute stealth attack on the detachment of the Army’s Bravo Company in Mataragan, in the said town at around 5:35 Sunday morning.

The attack, Bringgas said, was long asked for by villagers in Malibcong to drive away the soldiers from encamping in the area and to exact punishment on said soldiers who have been abusing villagers’ hospitality and have been lacking in discipline.

The detachment in Mataragan, the rebel spokesman further said, has brought fear and anxiety on villagers because of cases of theft of their livestock, indiscriminate firing, drunkenness and various other alleged abuses on the communities near the small military encampment.

The attack is a stern warning,  Bringgas said, against government forces who reportedly bombed locations near villages in barangay Gacab and Bangilo, also in that same town on May 30 and 31,  which traumatized tribal folks, especially two young girls who were almost hit by the bombs.

The Philippine Army acknowledged conducting aerial strikes in the area after a brief firefight with communist rebels in Malibcong but denied bombing villages.