6 AFP soldiers killed in Cordillera NPA attacks

TABUK, CITY --– Amid renewed calls by President Arroyo to end the decades-old insurgency problem, the New People’s Army has intensified its attacks, killing six Army soldiers in separate attacks in the Cordillera.

Ka Tipon Gil-ayab, spokesman of the NPA’s Lejo Cawilan Command in Kalinga said a squad of NPA fighters set up the hasty ambush along the foot trail between Barangays Poswoy and Ab-abaan in the municipality of Balbalan, Kalinga to waylay

34 soldiers under Charlie Company of the 21st IB. The firefight, Gil-ayab said, lasted 4:35 p.m. to 7 p.m. of July 30. “The ambush resulted in the immediate death of three soldiers and two wounded, one of whom died later.

The operating troops were part of the Re-engineered Special Operations Team of the 21st IB and 77th IB in the municipalities of Balbalan, Pinukpuk, Pasil, Lubuagan, including some barrios of Tabuk City,” Gil-ayab said.

Army casualties were named as Staff Sgt. Cio, Sgt. Galimba, and Private First Class Toribio.

The military reportedly did not divulge the name of the officer who was seriously wounded – 2Lt. Jay Alambra of the 21st IB.

Meanwhile, the NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command in Bara said it staged an ambush against a platoon of operating troops of the Bravo Coy, 41st IB on Aug. 1 at Barangay Duldulao, Malibcong, Abra wherein six soldiers were killed, nine were wounded and two later died in a hospital.

The rebel group said it retrieved an M16 rifle, ammunitions and backpack after the brief firefight.

“The Red Guerillas used a command-detonated claymore mine and safely withdrew. A company-sized composite contingent of the Bravo and Charlie Coys is currently terrorizing the people of Malibcong Poblacion, Duldulao, and Bayabas, and is forcing the people to allow the establishment of detachments in the municipality.

The overwhelming majority of the people, however, are opposed to the 41st IB's plan,” said ABC-NPA spokesman Ka Diego Wadagan in a statement.
In Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela, Maj. Gen. Melchor Dilodilo, chief of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division, said the rebel attacks were meant to show that the NPA is still a force to reckon with.

“In fact, our intelligence sources have gathered that the NPA general command has ordered its field forces to step up their attacks on government and private installations to make the impression that they are still a force to reckon with. But here in the north, their strength is on the downtrend,” he said.

On Aug. 1, he said, two soldiers on community outreach missions were killed and two of their colleagues were wounded in an NPA attack in Malibcong, Abra. “This came two days after three other soldiers were slain and another one wounded in a remote Kalinga village,” he added.

Last week, Ms Arroyo reiterated her call for the Armed Forces to crush the communist insurgency on or before 2001 before participants in Cagayan Valley’s first local peace and security assembly in Tuguegarao City.

Authorities have noted increased rebel activities in the Cagayan Valley, Cordillera and Ilocos regions where the 5th ID operates, including attacks on two Globe Telecom towers in Kalinga and Cagayan.