Soldiers assist 2 NPAs wounded in Sultan Kudarat clash

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Soldiers had apprehended two New People’s Army guerillas wounded in an encounter with soldiers in Barangay Datu Ito Andong in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat before dawn Thursday, June 19,

The two male NPAs, both minors, are now in the Camp Siongco Hospital in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, where the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division is located.

They first yielded on Saturday morning, June 21, to community leaders in Barangay Datu Ito Andong, who immediately turned them over to combatants of the 37th Infantry Battalion patrolling in their surroundings.

The two NPAs were in a group that figured in a gunfight with soldiers in the area last Thursday that left three of their companions dead, two of them senior officials of their self-styled Sub-Regional Committee-Daguma Area, whose leaders are all wanted for high-profile crimes pending in different courts in Central Mindanao.

A member of the 37th IB, Cpl. Jay-Ar Baay, was also killed in the incident.

The wounded adolescent NPAs first fled to a hinterland area in Barangay Datu Itoh Andong after their encounter with soldiers last Thursday, but eventually turned themselves in to community leaders whom they asked to bring them to a hospital.

They voluntarily turned over their assault rifles and improvised explosives to the soldiers who rescued and brought them first to a medical dispensary in Kalamansig, a seaside town in Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12.

Brig. Gen. Michael Santos, commander of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade, ordered on Saturday the commanding officer of the 37th IB, Lt. Col. Christopherson Capuyan, to provide the duo with essential humanitarian support while confined to the Camp Siongco Hospital.