Soldier killed, another wounded in Occidental Mindoro clash

LUCENA CITY – An Army soldier was killed while another was wounded in a clash between government troops and communist rebels in Paluan town in Occidental Mindoro on Wednesday, a military official said.

Lt. Col. Angelo Guzman, spokesperson of the military’s Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), said a unit from the Army’s 67th Infantry Battalion engaged an undetermined number of New People’s Army rebels in a firefight that started at 7:15 a.m.

Guzman withheld the names of the slain and wounded soldiers, saying they needed to notify their families first.

He said the local police set up checkpoints to block routes that the fleeing rebels would take.

This was the second clash on Mindoro Island since March 15 when an Army soldier and four members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) were killed in a firefight with NPA rebels in Bongabong town in Oriental Mindoro.