2 soldiers killed, 1 wounded in second clash with NPA in a day in Quezon

LUCENA CITY—Two Army soldiers were killed and another was wounded in a clash with New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Quezon province on Friday (Feb. 5), the second to occur in the same vicinity in Catanuan town in just over six hours.

The Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade operating in Quezon reported on its Facebook page on Friday night that two soldiers were killed while another was wounded during a clash with communist guerrillas fleeing the village of San Roque past 11 a.m.

The military said the rebels also suffered an undetermined number of casualties.

“We are saddened by the loss of our troops but we salute their bravery and heroism,” said Brig. Gen. Norwyn Romeo Tolentino, 201st IB commander, in a statement.

“They sacrificed their lives in the service of the country so we can have peace in the province of Quezon,” he said.

The clash was the second in the day after the same group of rebels and Army soldiers clashed in another town, Buenavista, much earlier around 4 a.m.

The military said Ronnel Batarlo, alias Ka Marwin, and an alleged top NPA leader in the province, was killed in the clash. It could not be independently verified, though. The rest of the rebels under Batario fled, the military said.

Another soldier was also wounded in that gunfight.

Soldiers found an M-16 rifle and an M-203 grenade launcher on the clash site apparently left by the fleeing rebels.

The NPA unit was the same group that clashed with a police and Army team in Mulanay town last Feb. 2, the military said.

The same rebels were also behind the ambush that wounded two policemen in San Narciso town in February 2020.

TSB