LUCENA CITY – Two Army soldiers were wounded in an encounter with suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Mauban, Quezon on Sunday afternoon.
The troopers were identified only as Private First Class Bocaboc and Corporal Gado. Both sustained wounds on their right legs when they clashed with a band of around 12 communist guerillas in Barangay Cagsiay 2 around 3:30 p.m., according to a report from Quezon police director Sr. Supt. Osmundo de Guzman.
The wounded soldiers belonged to Charlie Company, 1st Infantry Battalion led by a certain 2nd Lt. Ahkmad.
The encounter lasted for 30 minutes. After which, the rebels retreated in different directions leaving behind one M16 rifle recovered by the soldiers.
Police advised municipal stations to always ensure defensive posture and be cautious in responding to any incident especially in isolated or far-flung barangays.
Policemen were also tasked to maintain coordination and exchange intelligence information with the military in their area of operations.
On June 14, President Duterte ordered the indefinite cancelation of the resumption of the formal peace talks with the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The Duterte administration was now pushing for localized peace talks with the communist guerillas on the ground after the negotiations bogged down anew.
But the communist rebels rejected the local peace talks and vowed to continue their protracted people’s revolution, which has been going on for 49 years. /kga