ILOILO CITY –– A 29-year-old police captain died in an ambush by communist rebels in Janiuay town in Iloilo late Wednesday afternoon.
Captain Efren Espanto Jr., team leader of the Reconnaissance Company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6, died from a fatal wound in the head after a 30-minute firefight.
Espanto led two sections of the Reconnaissance Company who were conducting combat operations when they encountered an undetermined number of New People’s Army rebels in Barangay Aglobong in Janiuay town, Iloilo province about 45 kilometers north of here.
Espanto belonged to the Philippine National Police Academy Class of 2015.
“The police are now running after these terrorists, who possibly suffered an undetermined number of casualty,” according to the regional police office.
The NPA’s Jose Percival Estocada Command, which operates in central Panay, admitted responsibility for the attack.
It said in a statement that one other policeman was wounded and none among the rebels.
The government is targeting to defeat the rebels on Panay and Negros islands within this year.