2 soldiers killed in NPA ambush

LUCENA CITY—An Army junior officer and another soldier were killed, while four others were wounded in an ambush by communist rebels in Lopez town, Quezon province, on Monday morning, two days after the arrest of two of their top leaders in Cebu province, a police official said.

Senior Supt. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan, Quezon police chief, identified the fatalities as

1st Lt. Rey Jun Blancada and a Private First Class Malabanan, citing an initial report from the Lopez police station.

Blancada and his men were on board a still unknown vehicle on their way to a medical mission when they were waylaid by New People’s Army (NPA) members in Barangay (village) Cogorin Ilaya at 7 a.m. It was reported that the ensuing gun battle lasted for two hours.

Four soldiers, only identified as Corporals Mendoros, Nisperos, Gruta and Marcaida, were wounded and brought to Holy Rosary Hospital in Lopez.

The rebels retreated toward Binahaan B and Ilayang Ilog, Ylagan said.

No casualty was reported on the side of the rebels, he said.

Army soldiers and local policemen immediately conducted a hot-pursuit operation on the attackers.

On Saturday, state security forces arrested Benito Tiamzon, head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the NPA, and his wife, Wilma Austria, also a CPP central committee member and finance officer, in Aloguinsan town in Cebu.

Jose Ma. Sison, exiled CPP founder, vowed that even with the arrest of the two top officials, the NPA “will become even more determined to wage a people’s war.”

Military camps have been placed on “red alert” for NPA attacks following the arrest of the Tiamzons, Maj. Gen. John Bonafos, chief of the Central Command (Centcom), said in Cebu City.

“We are on double alert these days … We don’t want to be caught flat-footed,” Bonafos told reporters in a news conference at Camp Lapu-Lapu, the Centcom headquarters in Barangay Lahug.

The NPA is set to celebrate its 45th anniversary on March 29.

A day after the red alert was hoisted, three separate encounters occurred on neighboring Samar Island.

Army soldiers from the 34th Infantry Battalion clashed with NPA rebels in Barangay Capoto-an in Las Navas town, Northern Samar province, at 10:25 a.m. on Sunday.

Another encounter occurred at 12:15 p.m. the same day with troops under the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion in Barangay Cuenco, also in Las Navas.

The third occurred in Barangay Buluan in Calbiga town, Samar province, where troops of the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion spotted rebels in the village. One of the rebels was wounded but managed to flee, leaving behind an M-14 rifle.

Earlier, Malacañang announced that the Armed Forces of the Philippines was prepared for any retaliation after the Tiamzon couple’s arrest.

Bonafos told reporters that the two were complacent in thinking that no one would recognize them if they hid in Cebu.

“We could not establish if they have a camp here. They were complacent that they would not be recognized and that no one would report them. They were exposed there,” he said.

Cebu, being in the center of the country, is a good location for them to hold ground for their operations, Bonafos noted.

“Cebu is located strategically [and] economically … Whatever directive from this couple can easily be disseminated throughout the archipelago in Luzon and Mindanao,” he said.

He said the military was tracing and verifying the areas where the couple had been to in the province. With a report from Carmel Loise Matus, Inquirer Visayas