Army lieutenant, 2 NPA leaders killed in Quezon clashes

LUCENA CITY—A junior officer of the Philippine Army, two other soldiers and suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed in running clashes between government troops and communist rebels in Quezon province between Friday and Saturday, the military said.

First Lt. Romeo Sabio Jr. was killed in an encounter with a group of NPA rebels at Sitio Hinapay in Barangay San Roque in Catanauan town of Quezon province at 6 p.m. on Friday, the Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade announced on Facebook late on Sunday.

Sabio, a member of the Army’s 85th Infantry Battalion, was leading the hot pursuit operation against fleeing rebels when they were reportedly fired upon by a group of NPA guerrillas led by a “Cecilia Mondia” alias “Mitch/Anik.”

Sabio, 31, a native of Iloilo province, was a graduate of the Philippine Army’s Officers Candidate School Class of 2017, according to Capt. Jayrald Ternio, head of the public affairs office of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division.

Two soldiers were also killed and another was wounded in a clash in another part of the same subvillage at noon on Friday, the report said.

Declining strength

The military said the rebels also suffered an undetermined number of casualties in the firefights, including the “vice platoon leader” of the group that had clashed with Sabio’s team. The NPA leader, using the aliases “Jade” and “Rosgel,” was killed in another subvillage of San Roque at 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 6.

Another gun battle occurred in the neighboring Buenavista town at around 4 a.m. on Feb. 5, where Ronnel Batarlo, an alleged top NPA commander in the province who carried the alias “Ka Marwin,” was killed, according to the military report.

The military said the rebels who were involved in the firefights in Catanauan and Buenavista were the same personalities who engaged government troops in Mulanay town on Feb. 2.

Brig. Gen. Norwyn Romeo Tolentino, 201st Brigade commander, said the deaths of two ranking NPA leaders indicated the declining strength of the communist guerrillas in the province. —DELFIN MALLARI JR. INQ