Soldier hurt in clash with suspected NPA rebels in Quezon

LUCENA CITY – A Philippine Army soldier was wounded in an encounter with suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in San Andres town in Quezon province on Friday, Jan. 27.

The Quezon provincial police reported on Saturday, Jan. 28, that combined police and soldiers from the Army’s 85th Infantry Battalion clashed with a band of 10 to 15 communist guerrillas led by Alejandro Pinpin and Joseph Delos Santos in the hinterlands of Sitio (sub-village) Mabato in Barangay (village) Pansoy around 3 p.m.

The report said a soldier, Private First Class Johnson Carlos, was injured in the battle.

A resident in the area told police investigators that the rebels, two of them females, stayed in their house from 10 p.m. on Jan. 26 before the 45-minute battle started.

The police claimed that an undetermined number of rebels were also injured. They are monitoring hospitals and clinics near the area to search for the wounded alleged NPA rebels.

San Andres is located in the province’s 3rd district (Bondoc Peninsula), a known former NPA bailiwick in the Southern Tagalog region.

The Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade said the NPA rebels operating in the district were forced to transfer their operation to the neighboring Camarines Norte province in the Bicol region sometime last year due to intensified government anti-insurgency operation.

READ: Army, NPA clash in Quezon