BACOLOD City – The Philippine Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade (IB) in Murcia, Negros Occidental claimed an encounter in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City yesterday around 10 a.m. resulted in the deaths of two New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Captain Franco Ver Lopez, civic-military operations officer of the 303rd IB, said joint elements of the 79th Infantry Battalion, 6th Special Action Force Battalion, Philippine National Police and Joint Intelligence Task Group proceeded to the area after receiving reports from concerned citizens on the presence of 10 fully-armed NPAs seeking refuge.
A gun-battle lasted about 15 minutes. The NPAs withdrew towards northwest direction bringing with them at least two dead members.
Recovered from the scene were an M16 rifle, a .45 pistol, a bandoleer with six steel magazines and 120 live ammunitions, two water containers, two sacks of rice, assorted belongings, and subversive documents with high intelligence value.
There were no casualties on the government side, Lopez said.
Lopez added that during a visit, Coronel Benedict Arevalo, commander of the 303rd IIB, told the troops, “We cannot wait for the NPAs to attack us. We will attack them first. I want the troops to go out and run after the NPAs.”
“We encourage the people of Negros to support the troops and report any NPA activities in their area in order to prevent NPA terroristic activities in the community,” Arevalo said./PN
