LEGAZPI CITY – A suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebel was killed in an encounter with government forces in a remote village in Placer, Masbate on Friday, a Philippine Army report said Saturday.
Captain John Paul Belleza, public affairs chief of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said soldiers and police on internal security operation (ISO) chanced upon a group of suspected NPAs at around 2:50 p.m. in Barangay Calumpang and engaged them in a five-minute firefight that led to the death of one of the armed men.
Recovered at the encounter site was the M-16 rifle of the slain rebel, Belleza said.
Earlier in the same village, government troops recovered four anti-personnel mines, a 100-meter electrical wire, medical supplies, solar panel, one motorized banca, hammock and propaganda materials believed to have been left behind by fleeing rebel after an informant reported their presence in the area.