2 soldiers killed, 9 injured in NPA attacks in Davao

MAKILALA, North Cotabato – Two soldiers were killed while nine others were injured in separate attacks by New People’s Army rebels here and in the Davao area, military sources said Saturday.

In Barangay (village) Batasan here, NPA rebels ambushed three soldiers in civilian clothes, who were on their way to the town center to get food supply early Friday, Lieutenant  Manuel Gatus, civil-military operations officer of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, said.

Gatus said only one soldier was armed during the ambush, which also resulted in the wounding of the two others.

He identified the slain soldier as Private First Class Alex Calon and the wounded troopers as Private First Class Dan Garbo and Corporal Sarip Hassan.

In Panabo City in Davao del Norte, seven people – including two civilians – were injured when communist rebels lobbed a grenade into an Army detachment on Friday, Colonel Leopoldo Galon, spokesman of the Eastern Mindanao Command based in Davao City, said.

Galon said the attack occurred in Barangay San Roque around 6 p.m. It was not clear what the civilians were doing at the detachment during the attack.

In Davao City, a soldier was killed when NPA rebels fired at an unarmed soldier, who was driving his children and a nephew, in Paquibato district on Thursday, according to Majo  Jacob Obligado, spokesman of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.

Obligado said the attack on Corporal Wenie Carampatana showed that the rebels would not put a distinction between armed and unarmed targets.

“The attack also endangered the lives of the children but they did not care,” he said.