BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – A 16-year-old New People’s Army (NPA) rebel was killed in a gun battle with government troops in Barangay Gatuslao, Candoni, Negros Occidental.
“Ka Kisap/Boyca” was a resident of Sitio Maabon, Barangay Cabadiangan, Sipalay City, Negros Occidental, according to Brigadier General Leonardo Peña, commander of the 302nd Infantry Brigade (302IB).
He accused the NPA of using a “child soldier.”
The minor was a member of Squad 2, Platoon 3 of the NPA’s southwestern front, said Peña.
“We are dismayed by the wasted life of a youth who was made a ‘child soldier’. The NPA is poisoning the minds of their young recruits to topple our democratic form of government,” he said.
Soldiers from the Army’s 15th Infantry Battalion trooped to Barangay Gatuslao around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday after receiving information that rebels were there extorting from the villagers.
The gun battle was sporadic and lasted for some 35 minutes until the rebels retreated.
From the clash site, Army soldiers recovered an M16 rifle with defaced serial number, a .45 pistol, an anti-personnel mine, five short magazines for an M16 assault rifle, and assorted ammunition of various calibers.
They also found three kilos of ammonium nitrate, a commercial radio, a gun sling, three backpacks, and subversive documents.
According to Peña, the Philippine Army “will be relentless in our campaign to totally end five decades of menace and terroristic activities of the communist NPA terrorists in the country side.”/PN
