2 soldiers killed in Albay ambush

NAGA CITY — Two soldiers on their way to follow up the preparations for a livelihood project were killed in an ambush in Albay shortly before noon Monday, the Army here said.

Sergeant Servando Bautista and Private First Class Daniel Solinap, Jr. were waylaid by six assailants at the vicinity of Purok 4, Sitio (sub village) Banasan, Barangay (village) San Ramon, Daraga, Albay at around 11:30 a.m. Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Medel Aguilar, spokesman of the Philippine Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said.

Medel added that the fatalities were members of the 9th Civil-Military Operations Battalion of the Army.

The soldiers were in plain clothes and were only armed with short firearms when they were attacked while separately driving their motorcycles.

“The two belonged to the civil affairs team led by Captain Eulogio Bilog who visited Barangay Nabasan of same municipality to follow up the implementation of the livelihood project to the residents of said place who benefited from the Kabuhayan Starter Kit Program,” he said.

The project was intended for the poor in the area in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the local government unit as part of the Army’s Bayanihan program, he said.

He added that the Army believed the perpetrators to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA) operating in the area.

The Daraga police has launched an investigation on the incident, he said.

Aguilar also said that appropriate honors will be given to the slain soldiers.