Rebs claim 3 soldiers’ killing: Tribal court hears Army complaint on troops’ slay

By Charlie Lagasca 

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – A tribal court has started hearing a complaint filed by the Army over the ambush-slay last May 9 of its two soldiers while reportedly escorting election paraphernalia in this province.

Communist guerrillas, according to earlier reports, were behind the ambush, which also resulted in the wounding of at least six men of the Kalinga-based 17th Infantry Battalion.

The Matagoan Bodong Consultative Council chaired by Mayor Ferdinand Tubban of Tabuk, Kalinga’s capital, said it is acting on the complaint filed by the Army’s 5th Infantry Division that has jurisdiction over the 17th IB.

In its complaint, the Isabela-based 5th ID said its troops were merely assisting police and Commission on Elections personnel in transporting election materials to various parts of Kalinga when armed men attacked them in Dupag village, Tabuk City.

This, as communist guerrillas claimed responsibility over the killing of four soldiers and hurting five others in the second firefight with government troopers in the province on May 15.

This was six days after three troopers were killed when they were ambushed also in Tabuk, while on the way to deliver precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

Cordillera police, however, said only three were hurt and that the Marcial Daggay Front of the Lejo Cawilan Command of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Party Committee of the CPP-NPA in Kalinga said soldiers were waylaid along the road near the Ayaya Waiting Shed in Sitio Sidog, Barangay Limos, Pinukpuk, Kalinga. 

According to Tipon Gil-ayab, spokesperson of the Kalinga NPA command, the casualties were all from the newly- transferred 17th Infantry Battalion.

Lt. Col. Alvin Flores, commanding officer of the 17th IB, based  in Kapanikian, Camalog, also in Pinukpuk,  confirmed that only three of his troops were wounded. 

Gil-ayab, the ambush was staged by Red fighters from the Marcial Daggay Front in Pinukpuk.  

He said the unit command of the MDF and civilians saw the four troopers killed while five other troopers were wounded. 

Gil-ayab said “insiders from the AFP’s 5thInfantry Division confirm that from the initial four killed and five wounded, three more died from among those wounded bringing the figures to eight killed and two wounded.”

The casualties were all from the newly transferred and retrained 17th IB. 

“To save face, Lt. Col. Alvin Flores, the commanding officer of the 17th IB, whose headquarters is based at Kapanikian, Camalog, Pinukpuk, told print and broadcast media that only three of their troops were wounded,” Gil-Ayab said.  

He said there was no NPA casualty in both encounters.

“To downplay the NPA successful tactical offensives in the span of just five days, the AFP commanders proclaimed to the media that said ambushes were undertaken because “NPA candidates and party lists” lost in the recent elections,” Gil-Ayab said.

“This is clearly red-baiting to harass and malign progressive party lists and candidates.” – With a report from Charlie Lagasca