Suspected minor rebel nabbed in clash with AFP in Quezon

By Ronron
June 5, 2007

A suspected minor rebel was captured by government troops in a clash last Sunday in Quezon province, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

According to Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Jr., Bryan Tumaclay, alias Balong, 16, was nabbed following a 30-minute clash between some 30 fully armed members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Philippine Army’s 16th Infantry Battalion (IB).

Torres, spokesman of the Philippine Army, said the encounter happened at around 10:30 am last Sunday at Barangay Milawid, Panukulan town.

Torres said elements of the Alpha Company of the 16th IB were on combat operations when they discovered a suspected NPA camp occupied by the 30 rebels.

He said Tumaclay was left behind by his comrades who have scampered to different directions following the firefight.

No casualty was reported on both sides.

The spokesman said Tumaclay will undergo debriefing before the military will turn him over to the local office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Torres said government troops recovered from the site pieces of subversive document and personal belongings.

He said two K9 teams proceeded to secure the place later in the day as other troops conducted pursuit operations against the fleeing insurgents.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has condemned the NPA’s alleged continuous recruitment of minors in their ranks, saying it is against international laws on human rights.

The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside in the last 38 years and is now being targeted to be crushed by the Arroyo government by 2010.

Peace talks with the communist movement bogged down in August 2004 following its inclusion in the terrorist list of foreign governments./DMS