2 soldiers killed, 2 wounded in clash with NPA in Sorsogon

By Ronron
April 19, 2007

Two government troopers were killed while two others were wounded in an encounter last Wednesday against suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the province of Sorsogon, an Army spokesman said.

Lt. Col. Roderick Parayno, Public Information Officer of the Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM), said the clash happened at around 12:45 pm at Barangay Villareal, Gubat town, involving elements of the 2nd Infantry Battalion and some 60 NPA rebels.

He said the encounter lasted for more than one hour and extended to the neighboring Barangay Bulacao of the same town.

The identities of the two slain and two wounded soldiers were not immediately known. They were airlifted from the site using military helicopters.

Parayno said the rebels were also able to take away one M16 rifle from the government fighters.

Additional troops from the Philippine Army’s 901st Infantry Brigade were inserted with the help of two Huey helicopters from the Tactical Operations Group 5 of the Philippine Air Force.

They were dropped at the nearby Barangay Buenavista, also in Gubat, where they also clashed with the same NPA group at around 3:45 pm.

The number of casualties on the NPA side is still undetermined as of this writing.

The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside in the last 38 years. The government hopes to crush it by 2010 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ends her term.

Peace talks with the communist movement bogged down in August 2004 after it was tagged by foreign governments like the United States and the European Union as a terrorist group./DMS