4 killed in Army, NPA clash in Abra

TUBO, Abra – At least four army soldiers and two New People’s Army guerilla were killed in a fierce gunbattle between government troops and communist rebels in this remote village over the weekend, the second incident to take place in the area in a week, the Army said April 8.

In a report to Maj. Gen. Melchor Dilodilo, commanding general of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based in Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Upi-Gamu, Isabela, it indicated the encounter came after the discovery of a communist camp in mountain Tubtuba village, Tubo, Abra.

The army said at least two NPA rebels were killed and still undetermined numbers of their comrades were wounded while two death casualties were incurred from the government side during the more than three-hour heavy gunbattle.

But according to Ka Diego Wadagan, spokesperson of the Agustine Begnalen Comand opf the New People’s Army in, four soldiers of the 52nd Reconnaissance Coy under the 5th Infantry Division and an NPA guerrilla were killed in the encounter on April 5 in the barangay.

Wadagan identified the lone casualty of the NPA as Ka Atong, a member of the Salegseg tribe in Kalinga.

The encounter was the latest in a series of clashes between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and NPA as the military's operations entered its second month.
Earlier on March 21, five troopers were killed in an ambush, and on March 25, two more were killed and two others wounded, Wadagan said.

“Daily from March 23 to 27, two OV-10 bomber planes dropped 250-pound bombs and strafed the forested area and mountains along the boundary of Tubo and Besao and the peripheries of the communities of Sityo Pananuman and Tubtuba. Since March 29, the AFP bombarded the area from morning till night with 105mm Howitzer shells and 81mm mortar fire from Pananuman,” Wadagan said.

“An OV-10 bomb costs around P100,000 each, a Howitzer bomb around P8,500, and a mortar bomb around P5,000. The military sustained its bombing operations even at night, traumatizing the villagers and disrupting their livelihood. The people were forced to stop tending their rice fields, swidden farms, and grazing animals.”

Army spokesmen meanwhile said the latest encounter was the fiercest this year as the military even reinforced its field troops with ground-to-air artilleries, prompting the more than 35 heavily-armed rebels to back off and scamper in groups towards different escape routes.

In his report, Lt. Col. Roy De Vesa, chief of the Army brigade in the area, said that his men, led by 1Lt. Michael Victoria and 2Lt. Lito Punio of the 52nd Reconnaissance Company, were in combat operations when they came across an NPA camp in the area, and subsequently encountered the fully-armed rebels holding their ground at the camp’s outskirts.

The encounter, which broke out just before noon, also led to the Army’s recovery of a backpack with a hand grenade inside and a two-way radio.

The Army death casualties were identified as Jeorge Pantuloc and Eunel Baluloan, both privates first class of the Army’s 5th ID.

“The success of the operations in the area was the result of the reliable information given by the civilians,” said Dilodilo, whose 5th ID command covers the three Northern Luzon regions – Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera.

The Army said that the discovery of the camp, the second to be overrun this year, further weakened the communist base in the area, which is still considered one of the few remaining hotbeds of insurgency in Northwest Luzon.