NPA rebel killed in Oriental Mindoro clash

A suspected member of the New People’s Army (NPA) was killed in a firefight with Army soldiers in Mansalay town in Oriental Mindoro province on Sunday night, military reports said.

Maj. Gen. Rhoderick Parayno, commander of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, said soldiers engaged eight communist guerrillas, who were aboard four motorcycles, in Sitio Bait in Barangay Panaytayan at 8:30 p.m.

Parayno said suspected rebel Pablito Quinunez, 57, died in the clash which lasted for five minutes. Quinunez, he said, was a resident of Barangay Don Pedro in Mansalay.

Parayno said no soldier was killed or wounded in the clash.

Soldiers recovered a .45 caliber pistol, two containers full of bullets and three motorcycles left by the fleeing rebels.

With the recent NPA attacks in different parts of the country, the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday renewed its “surrender or die” warning to communist guerrillas.

But Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison on Monday said it was “absurd” for President Duterte and the military to call on the NPA to surrender. —Delfin T. Mallari