2 soldiers hurt in NPA ambush in Quezon

LUCENA CITY – Two Army soldiers were wounded in an ambush staged by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Quezon province Bondoc Peninsula area on Sunday evening, Mulanay town Mayor Joselito Ojeda said Monday.

In a text message, Ojeda said at least 24 soldiers aboard a military truck were waylaid by a band of heavily armed communist guerillas in Barangay (village) Ajos in nearby Catanauan town around 10:45 p.m.

Two of the soldiers, Corporals Dennis Quirino Moran and Humphry Faller Cabilogan, were wounded in the attack. The wounded soldiers were brought to the Bondoc Peninsula District Hospital in Catanauan town center for emergency treatment.

Ojeda said the soldiers were responding to an earlier arson incident at the Globe cell site located in Barangay Tuhian that were allegedly perpetrated by NPA rebels.

Major Virgilio Perez, spokesperson of the Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), said the rebels detonated an improvised explosive device followed by gunfire from an undetermined number of attacking forces.

Perez said the soldiers engaged the rebels in a fierce firefight that forced the enemies to withdraw. He said the rebels also sustained casualties.

He said an estimated 10 NPA rebels burned two generators sets at the Globe cell site tower. The rebels escaped aboard L300 van without unidentified plate number. JE