Four soldiers killed, three injured in alleged NPA-initiated landmine blast in Samar

By Ronron
March 3, 2008

Four government troops were killed and three others were injured by an explosion Monday morning of several landmines planted allegedly by New People’s Army (NPA) elements at a barangay road in Motiong, Samar, a military spokesman said.

Maj. Armand Rico, spokesman of the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division based in Samar province, said in a phone interview last night that the incident happened at around 8:15 am at Barangay Pange while the victims, who are elements of the Army’s 46th Infantry Battalion, were responding to alleged NPA presence in said area.

The attack came after Saturday’s ambush by suspected guerillas against Army troopers in Davao City, and Sunday’s harassment at a CAFGU detachment in Carmen, Surigao del Sur.

Rico said about 10 rebels first attacked a private residence at around 5am yesterday in Barangay Bliss in Paranas, Samar, thinking it was of their target’s, PO2 Servando Arellano of the Paranas Municipal Police Station.

“The neighbors just heard the suspected rebels shouting outside. They were asking Servando to surrender his firearms to them,” Rico recounted.

“Their contact must have erred in pointing the house of Arellano because the perpetrators went to the house of Gaspar Dacula, the supervisor of Samar Electric Company II. Their houses were just near each other,” he added.

When no Arellano came out, the guerillas fired at Dacula’s house using M16 and M14 rifles. They later threw a grenade that exploded inside the house, said Rico.

Fortunately, Dacula and his wife, who were the only people inside, were able to hide at their basement when the rifles started firing, and were spared from any injury, Rico said.

When the rebels left on foot, the incident was immediately reported to the military, prompting the deployment of a platoon from the Bravo Compnay of the 46th IB, which was based in Motiong town.

The troops, led by 2Lt. Leonard Orbase, headed to the reported route of withdrawal of the rebels at Barangay Pange, said Rico.

By this time, the 10 rebels already grew to at most 30 as reinforcement arrived.

But before the government troops could get closer to their targets, they were hit by the explosion of three landmines, Rico said.

This resulted in the death of four enlisted personnel and the woundning of Orbase and his two men, identified as Private First Class Julius Leyson and and Private First Class Priscilo Covarrubias.

Orbase, Leyson and Covarrubias are now being treated at the Camp Lukban Station Hospital in Catbalogan town. Rico said they are in stable condition, he even talked to Orbase.

The other men of Orbase who survived the attack and tried to fire at the withdrawing rebels recovered two unexploded landmines during clearing operations, said Rico.

“There were reports from civilians that there are bloodstains in their route of withdrawal so we believe they suffered some casualties, whom they brought along,” Rico said.

He said the Army “condemns” the attack of the NPA against civilians and the use of landmines against the government forces.

“We are pursuing them,” Rico said of the rebels.

Interviewed at Clark Airfield in Angeles City, Pampanga earlier in the day, Army chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano said the series of NPA attacks “is not really alarming, considering that we are telling the whole country of the positive developments in our pursuit to end the insurgency problem.”

Yano said the series of attacks only shows that their “soldiers are not sleeping” because there are efforts against them by the NPA.

The 5,760-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost four decades now.

The government vows to crush them by 2010 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ends her term.

Peace talks between the communist movement and the government bogged down in August 2004 after the former and its key leaders were tagged as terrorists by some foreign governments./DMS