INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY, Quezon — A suspected communist rebel was killed in a clash with Army soldiers in Lopez town in Quezon province on Monday, a military official said.
Col. Lenard Agustin, commander of the Philippine Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade operating in Quezon, said soldiers tasked to secure a telecommunication tower and power transmission lines in the town chanced upon a band of New People’s Army rebels, led by one Joseph de los Santos, alias Ka Ken and Ka Bingot, in Barangay De La Paz at 5:30 a.m.
After a 30-minute gunfight, the rebels retreated and left the body of one of their companions.
Agustin said the slain rebel had yet to be identified as of Monday afternoon.
Soldiers also recovered an M-16 rifle and a shotgun from the encounter scene. SFM