NPA: Seven soldier slain in Tubo, Abra encounter

By Charlie Lagasca
TUBO, Abra – Not one but seven soldiers had been killed in six days of skirmishes between government troops and the New People’s Army rebels here earlier this month.
    
The NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command based in northwestern Cordillera claimed this April 11, disputing the Army’s assertion that it only suffered a lone fatality in said encounters in Abra’s remote mountain villages from March 28 to April 2.

“The NPA commemorated its 42nd anniversary in Tubo (Abra) by launching these tactical offensives,” said Ka Diego Wadagan, spokesperson of the Abra-based NPA command, in an e-mailed statement to media.

However, the Isabela-based Army’s 5th Infantry Division, whose jurisdiction included Abra and the rest of north Luzon, belied the NPA claim.

“There is no truth to that claim. Why will we hide something if that is really what happened? I can vouch that only one soldier had been killed there during the period,” said Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of the 5th ID’s civil military operations battalion.

 Magundayao identified the fatality as Private First Class Arnel Daracan of the 50th Infantry Battalion.

 The NPA said encounters with 50th IB troops all took place in Tubo town’s remote areas, which broke out on March 28, which was the eve of the NPA’s 42nd anniversary, and lasted until April 2.

 “In the series of four firefights, our guerillas maintained the initiative. The 50th IB suffered a minimum of seven killed in action, three wounded in action and two damaged helicopters. There were no casualties on our side,” Wadagan said.

 The Army’s biggest setback during the encounters, the NPA claimed, took place in sitio Beew while they were moving toward an abandoned communist camp in sitio Beew on April 1.

 “Though the Army was superior in firepower, five of their soldiers were killed while one was wounded in that encounter,” Wadagan claimed.

These encounters, the NPA said, came as the military was also beefing up its forces in the area to secure the national government’s various mining projects there amid the residents’ opposition to their operations.