ILOILO City – New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and troops of the Police Regional Office 6’s (PRO-6) Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 – Reconnaissance Company clashed in the remote barangay of Aglobong in Janiuay, Iloilo.
The Reconnaissance Company team leader, 29-year-old Police Captain Efren Espanto of La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, died.
The encounter happened at around 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 12. Some 20 policemen were attacked while on their way back to the town proper on foot after three days of anti-insurgency offensive operations.
The encounter lasted for some 30 minutes, according to Police Captain Dadjie Delima, Janiuay police chief. He was unsure of the number of rebels.
Espanto, a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy, Batch 2015, died in the encounter site but his body was still taken to the Federico Roman Tirador Sr. Memorial District Hospital in Janiuay. He sustained a fatal gunshot wound on the right eye.
Delima said the NPA rebels belonged to the Jose Percival Estocada Command. He did not discount the possibility that Espanto’s troops may have wounded or even killed some rebels, too, citing trails of blood along the withdrawal path of the insurgents.
Espanto was the lone police casualty.
His body would undergo autopsy to “determine the firearm used by the rebels,” said Delima.
The PRO-6 was saddened by Espanto’s demise, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, regional information officer.
The young officer sacrificed his life for the attainment of peace, said Malong.
Prior to his Reconnaissance Company assignment, Espanto served as police chief of San Remigio, Antique.
The PRO-6 deployed more troops to Janiuay following the encounter to run after the rebels.
Delima said there had been frequent sightings of rebels in Barangay Aglobong which is geographically near Barangay Atimonan, Janiuay, an identified NPA-influenced area.
The Department of Interior and Local Government has designated Barangay Atimonan as a priority area in the government’s campaign to end local communist armed conflict./PN
