NPA kills 3 soldiers in Masbate town clash, police say

LOSING STRENGTH In March, Malacañang presented some of the 188 persons that Palace and military officials said were NPA rebels who grew tired of fighting and surrendered. —JAM STA. ROSA

LEGAZPI CITY—Communist rebels killed three government soldiers in a clash on Friday in a remote village of Masbate province, according to police.

Senior Insp. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, Bicol regional police spokesperson, said the clash took place in a remote village of Cawayan town.

Calubaquib said the soldiers’ identities were not yet known.

Citing a report, Calubaquib said a group of soldiers from the Army’s 2nd Infantry Battalion was on patrol when they were waylaid by an undetermined number of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels past 8 a.m. on Friday in the village of Mactan.

The report quoted by Calubaquib said soldiers engaged the rebels in a gunfight and killed an undetermined number of rebels.

Police in towns near Cawayan set up checkpoints on routes that the NPA rebels were expected to take in their escape.

Policemen and soldiers also were checking at hospitals and clinics for wounded rebels.

The clash came just hours after a bomb exploded at a port in Masbate.

There were no casualties in the explosion but Capt. Joash Pramis, spokesperson for the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said several boats were damaged.

Pramis said the blast could be just a “nuisance atrocity” to show “disorder.”

He said in a phone interview that the target of the blast was unknown “because the explosion happened at night when there was nobody around.” —MAR S. ARGUELLES