One killed as gov’t troops clash with NPA in Compostela Valley

TAGUM CITY — A soldier was killed while two others were wounded when government troops clashed anew with New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Mabini, Compostela Valley police and military authorities said in a report released Thursday.

The encounter took place barely a day after NPA rebels had freed Nabunturan town policeman Police Officer 3 Ruben Nojapa Jr. after two weeks in captivity and amid a continued military combat operation against them.

Senior Superintendent Camilo Cascolan, Compostela Valley police chief, said soldiers from the 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion were in another combat operation in Libudon village around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when they chanced upon a band of NPA rebels.

Cascolan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer through a text message that the battle lasted past 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Lieutenant Vilma Mojado, information officer of the Army’s 1001st Infantry Brigade, said by phone the clash resulted in the death of a soldier and the wounding of two other government troopers.

Mojado said the combat operation would continue in Compostela Valley, one of Mindanao provinces where the NPA – which celebrated its 44th anniversary last month — remains active.

Just five days shy of its March 30 anniversary, NPA rebels also launched near simultaneous attacks against government troops in several Compostela Valley towns.

No casualties were reported on either side in the March 25 clashes spawned by NPA attacks that took place in the towns of Maco, New Bataan, and also Mabini.

Since January, at least 10 NPA-initiated incidents were recorded in Compostela Valley, which prompted the military to acknowledge the province as among the country’s few remaining “Red-influenced” areas that needed liberation from the rebels – alongside Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur and Albay.

The NPA, the armed group of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging more than four decades of insurgency aimed at establishing a Maoist government in the Philippines – Asia’s only Catholic nation.

Talks with the rebels for a peace pact had repeatedly failed due to a wide range of issues such as immunity to its peace negotiators and consultants; and clashes amid an existing ceasefire with the government.