3 soldiers killed in landmine blast in Albay village

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — Three government troopers were slain while another was wounded when they were hit by shrapnel from a landmine blast set by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Barangay (village) Maninila, an upland village in Camalig, Albay, Monday morning, an Army official said.

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Costelo, commanding officer of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Battalion, in a text message, said nine soldiers were sent to track down a group of communist rebels sighted in Sitio Sta. Lucia of Barangay Maninila, some 12 kilometers away from the town proper of Camalig when they were hit by the explosion at 9 a.m.

The explosion was followed by a volley of gun fire attack from the rebels who were at a vantage area, said Costelo.

He identified the three soldiers killed as Corporal Sandy Senadan, Private First Class Jaypee Cortez and Private First Class Rhoderick Barrameda and the soldier wounded as Private First Class Roel Soltes.

Costelo said the soldiers were able to retaliate and fire back at the rebels who immediately withdrew to a mountainous area of Maninila.

The fleeing rebels carted away a K3 automatic weapon and two M16 rifles, said Costelo.

Earlier at 8:30 a.m, a group of NPA rebels harassed and fired on an Army detachment in Barangay Del Rosario, an upland village some seven kilometers from Camalig town proper, said Chief Inspector Frandi Echaluce, Camalig town police chief.

Echaluce, in a phone interview, said a running gun battle ensured between the rebels and the soldiers manning the detachment.

Echaluce said the incidents in Barangay Del Rosario and Barangay Maninila could be initiated by the same groups of rebels that killed the three Army soldiers. Del Rosario is five kilometers away from Maninila.