Officer on way to medical mission dead in Albay NPA ambush

LEGAZPI CITY—An Army officer was killed and another soldier was wounded in an ambush yesterday by communist rebels while the soldiers were on a medical mission in Daraga, Albay.

Col. Arthur Ang, commanding officer of the Army’s 903 Infantry Brigade based in Daraga, identified the slain officer as 2nd Lt Catalino Tiago, 27, a native of Davao, and the wounded as Pfc. Genesis Broso, both of the 2nd Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Tula-tula, Ligao City, Albay.

Ang said Tiago was on board an Army truck with a group of soldiers and a doctor carrying medical supplies for Barangay Nabasan, a remote village in Daraga.

The Army vehicle was negotiating a road in the vicinity of Barangays San Vicente Grande and Nabasan past 9 a.m. when waylaid by at least 15 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.

Tiago and Broso were among a 10-man group of soldiers, led by Maj. Narzan Obuyes, who had scheduled the medical mission on the request of villagers in Nabasan, Ang said.

The soldiers were able to jump out of the military truck and engage the rebels in a 15-minute gunfight that led to the death of Tiago, said Ang.

The wounded soldier was rushed to the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital. He was declared in stable condition.

Ang said Army soldiers are now scouring nearby villages while more soldiers were sent to the area to hunt the rebels.

Continued rebel attacks are hurting efforts to revive peace talks between the government and the communist National Democratic Front, said officials monitoring the talks.