2 Red fighters slain, 2 others nabbed in South Cotabato

KORONADAL CITY –– Two Red fighters were killed and two others were captured after a raid on a communist guerrilla lair in Lake Sebu town in South Cotabato just before daybreak Wednesday, April 29.

Lieutenant Colonel Lino Capellan, spokesperson of Police Regional Office 12, said the operation was launched jointly by police and soldiers of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion around 5 a.m. in Sitio Lambila of Barangay Lamfugon in Lake Sebu.

As the government forces approached the area, an undetermined number of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels opened fire, triggering a brief gunfight that resulted in the killing of two still unidentified guerrillas.

Capellan further said that the government forces did not pursue the remaining rebels, who fled into a forested area, as they might have laid out a trap to pin down the troops there.

Capellan said the area was a lair of guerrillas under Nato Mindal alias Commander Patrick Co of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front Musa.

The captured women NPA fighters were Mylene Pasandalan, 32, a medic and wife of Mindal; and Marina Andal, wife of another guerrilla official identified as Naldo Pungol, Capellan said.

Police seized from the women’s possession a cal. 45 pistol, mobile phone, camouflage garments, a homemade rifle known as ‘boga’ that uses marbles as bullets, solar panels, machetes, and personal belongings.

Two M-16 assault rifles and two bandoliers with magazines were also recovered from the dead fighters.

Three children aged 6, 3, and 2, who were in the NPA camp, were turned over to the care of the Lake Sebu social welfare office.

Brig. Gen. Alfred Corpus, PRO-12 regional director, lauded the police and soldiers for the outcome of the operation, reminding them to be always on guard as the rebels may take any chance to strike while the government is preoccupied with responding to the coronavirus threat.

LZB