9 troops dead, 2 hurt in separate NPA attacks

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  --- Nine government combatants were killed while two others, one of them an Army captain, were seriously wounded in an ambush by communist rebels past 9 a.m. Monday in Tulunan town in the province.

Another band of rebels also bombed, while in nearby Barangay Luna Sur in Makilala town, a convoy of soldiers from the 57th Infantry Battalion on its way to check on the ambush incident.

The roadside bombing left an enlisted serviceman dead and four others wounded, one of them an officer named 1Lt. Bruno Hugo.

Local officials identified the officer injured in the Tulunan ambush as Captain Ernesto Aguilar of the 38 Infantry Battalion, who, along with escorts, was on his way to Barangay Bituan in Tulunan on board an Army truck to deliver salaries of local members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.

Sources from the local police said the rebels that perpetrated the ambush belong to the Fronts 72 and 74 of the New People’s Army.

Police investigators said the NPAs first set off a  roadside bomb before emerging from one side of the road connecting the town proper of Tulunan to Barangay Bituan and shot the victims’ Kia 4x4 light truck with assault rifles.

Five soldiers and three CAFGU members were killed on the spot, according to the Tulunan municipal police.

A militiaman, who tried to maneuver into a strategic spot while he and Aguilar traded shots with their ambushers, also reportedly went missing.

Aguilar’s bag containing the payroll money for the militiamen guarding a detachment in a secluded farming enclave in Barangay Bituan was lost in the ensuing firefight.

Lt. Col. Roy Galido, commanding officer of the 38th IB, which oversees all CAFGU units in Central Mindanao, confirmed the ambush incident, but declined to identify Aguilar’s slain subordinates and CAFGU escorts pending notification of their respective families.

Galido told The Star via text message that nine government combatants were killed in Monday morning’s separate attacks in Tulunan and Makilala, where NPAs have been operating with impunity.

Galido said the attacks were apparent retaliations by the NPA for its heavy losses in recent encounters with Army units in nearby Makilala town, also in North Cotabato.