Boy shot, wounded in clash of NPA rebels, Army troops

TAGUM CITY, Philippines — Communist rebels allegedly shot and wounded a 14-year old boy in an attack at a hinterland village in Monkayo, Compostela Valley on Wednesday, police on Thursday said.

Senior Superintendent Camilo Cascolan, Compostela Valley police chief, said Russel Lombukan suffered a gunshot wound in the right part of his chest after being hit by rebel fire along Kilometer 21, Casoon village around 2:57 p.m.

The boy was picking root crops when five gunmen believed to be members of the New People’s Army’s Guerrilla Front 3 allegedly started firing at the direction of the community shed, allegedly hitting the victim, said Cascolan.

Soldiers present in the community fired back, with the exchange of gunfire lasting for two minutes before the guerrillas withdrew in an unknown direction.

The troops from the Army’s 25th Infantry Battalion were in the area pursuing the same band of rebels said to be led by a certain Rebo whom government troops had clashed with at Sitio (sub-village) Sapdan, also in Casoon the day before, according to Cascolan.

In that previous encounter, a soldier was wounded while government troops recovered rifles and explosives believed left behind by the fleeing insurgents, said Capt. Albert Caber, spokesperson of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command.

“The soldiers administered first aid to the wounded boy and facilitated his immediate evacuation to the nearest hospital for treatment,” Senior Superintendent Cascolan added.