12 killed, four injured in fighting between AFP and NPA in Bukidnon

By Ronron
March 2, 2007

Ten suspected communist rebels and two government soldiers were killed in a daylong encounter Thursday between the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Bukidnon province.

Maj. Samuel Sagun, spokesman of the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental province, said yesterday that the encounter, which started at 8am and ended 4pm, happened some 17 kilometers away from the center of Malaybalay City.

He said elements of the 26th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Philippine Army clashed with some 30 guerillas under the Front Committee 89 of the NPA.

Of the slain rebels, two are women, Sagun said. At least one of their comrade was also wounded but was brought along by those who fled.

The military, on the other hand, incurred three wounded casualties, aside from the two who died. The slain soldiers were identified as Corporal Antonio Jamanda and Private First Class Franklin Tan.

The government troopers recovered from the clash site an M14 rifle, an M16 rifle, and a landmine left behind by the escaping rebels, said Sagun.

The said encounter happened on the same day when elements of the Philippine Army’s 8th IB encountered also an undetermined number of insurgents belonging to Front Committee 4B-North Central Mindanao Regional Committee in Binuangan, Misamis Oriental.

The 45-minute encounter, which started at 5:30 am, resulted in the death of two rebels and the capture of two others.

The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla war in the countryside in the last 39 years. Peace talks with the government bogged down in August 2004 after the group and their leaders were tagged by the US and European Union governments as terrorists.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has directed the AFP to crush the insurgents by 2010 when she ends her term./DMS