Suspected NPA dead in another clash in Oriental Mindoro

CITY OF CALAPAN – Another armed encounter took place between government soldiers and suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mansalay town in Oriental Mindoro on Saturday.

Supt. Socrates Faltado, Mimaropa police information officer, said a still unidentified rebel was killed during the encounter between the NPA and the 403rd Regional Mobile Force Batallion Mimaropa and Philippine Army soldiers in Barangay (village) Waygan at 4:45 a.m.

He said clearing operation was still ongoing as of Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, the Samahan ng mga Mindorenyo para sa Bayan at Kalikasan (Sambayanan), an organization of 27 community-based groups, appealed for peaceful means to address what it calls “destructive projects” in Mindoro after the attack on the Sta. Clara Power Corporation hydropower project on Feb. 24 that set off armed encounters between soldiers, police, and rebels during the past week.

Ross Delgado, president of Sambayanan, said they believed in “peaceful means in pushing the welfare of the people of Mindoro and its environment.”

Delgado called on all armed groups to “let legal means prevail.”

On Friday, Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, chief  PNP, visited the wake of Sgt. Edwin Encarnacion who died during the armed encounter between the NPA and police who were on a patrol on the private company Premium Megastructures Inc. Construction in Barangay Malamig in Gloria, Oriental Mindoro, on Thursday.

Albayalde also gave financial assistance and award of heroism medals posthumously to Senior Police Officer 2 Raymond Robles and SPO1 Bonifacio Tacuyo Jr. in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro.

Robles and Tacuyo were killed on Feb. 24 when they tried to reinforce a troop of Army soldiers battling at least 20 NPA rebels in Occidental Mindoro./lzb