Soldier dies; NPA camp dismantled in Isabela

GAMU, Isabela – A soldier died in an hour-long firefight between combined Army and police operatives and New People’s Army rebels in a remote village here on April 20, wherein an NPA makeshift camp was also dismantled, an Army report said.

According to the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based here, its 45th Infantry Battalion troops, along with operatives from the Military Intelligence Group and provincial police encountered undetermined number of the traditionally Maoist-rebels at the vicinity of Pallay creek, Barangay Para in capital Ilagan town.

Maj. Gen. Melchor Dilodilo, chief of the Army’s 5th ID, said that the firefight occurred shortly after the joint team under one 2nd Lieutenant Agbing discovered and seized an NPA encampment in the area.

The identity of the Army casualty was withheld pending information to his family.
The hour-long gunbattle was followed by exchange of sporadic gunfire as combined Army-police operatives continued to scour the area as the communist militants started their escape from the site, bringing along their casualties.

Dilodilo said government operatives were able to recover from the camp several personal belongings and subversive documents, which the Army described as with high intelligence value.

The encounter with the rebels and the earlier discovery of their camp was the latest development in the Army’s efforts to eradicate the vestiges of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA, in the country.

Earlier this year, the Army here vowed to wipe out remaining rebel strongholds within the 5th ID’s area of operations in the three Northern Luzon regions - Ilocos, Cordillera and Cagayan Valley on or before 2010. – CL