3 soldiers slain, scores hurt in NPA ambushes

BALBALAN, Kalinga – Army troops are now scouring mountains here in search of New People’s Army guerillas who ambushed a government military platoon in two incidents which resulted to the killing of three soldiers.

The soldiers were reportedly on their way to a medical-dental mission in a remote village here when they were waylaid by NPA rebels night of Nov. 12.

Slain were Cpl. Jeffrey de los Santos and Pfc. MicholleAlipio, both belonging to the 1st medical platoon of the 501st Infantry Brigade of the Isabela-based 5th Infantry Division. Both hailed from Cagayan.

A number of rebels were wounded in the ensuing firefight, the military said.

The Army deplored what it described as an inhuman act of NPA rebels for the attack on a relief mission.

The attack on the soldiers who were merely going to deliver relief goods to remote Dao-angan village in Balbalan town was something uncalled for and could not be justified by the rebels’ ideology, the Isabela-based Army’s 5th Infantry Division said.

“I am at a loss for words to express what I feel about it. Our men were merely transporting relief goods for our needy people in that remote part of our country when they were waylaid by the rebels,” said 5th ID chief Maj. Gen. Rommel Gomez.

The Army said the NPA attack was a violation of the Geneva Convention, which respects security of medical groups, regardless of political beliefs, when performing humanitarian missions such as relief and medial activities in the field.

The attack was the second in about three weeks. Last Oct. 19, suspected NPA guerillas also attacked Army troops while on their way to assist a medical outreach mission in Poswoy village, also in Balbalan town.

Last Nov. 13, several Army troops were escorting vehicles of relief goods and medicine for the joint relief and medical mission with ABS-CBN’s SagipKapamilya,Lions Club and the local government unit when a band of fully armed rebels waylaid them along the way.

Although outnumbered, the government troops fought back, managing to exchange gunfire for about an hour until the rebels retreated, the Army said, adding the NPA guerillas also sustained casualties.

Despite the incident, the relief mission still pushed through in neighboring Limos village in Pinukpuk town with about 200 villagers benefiting from it.

Villagers, who were still reeling from the recent onslaught of typhoons, also received some 220 bags of assorted foodstuff.

Meanwhile, the NPA’s LejoCawilan Command based in Kalinga admitted the communist group’s MarcialDaggay Command was responsible for the ambuscades.

KaTipon Gil-ayab, LCC spokesperson, in a prèss statement said in the first incident around 5 a.m. on Oct. 19, an NPA unit of the MDC ambushed a platoon of the 21st Infantry Battalion between SitioSassalong and SitioKobiil, in Barangay Poswoy, Balbalan where a certain Corporal Bagasin, the guide of the troops, was killed.

Gil-ayab said the government troopers were wounded either by bullets from the NPA or by stones and thorns as they fell down the cliff to a brook.

After the firefight, the NPA guerillas disappeared unharmed.

Another NPA unit from the same MDC ambushed another combat platoon of the 21st IB at 9:25 morning of Nov. 12, Gil-ayab said.

The ambush was staged at a mountain slope between the two barangays of Daoangan, Balbalan and of Baay, Pinukpuk, all in Kalinga.

Gil-ayab said two high-powered rifles – M16 and M203 – were seized by the Red fighters from the 21st IB.

He said two army troopers were killed while several others were wounded while there was no casualty on the side of the NPA.

The MDC is reportedly the Front Operational Command of the NPA in the North-West Kalinga Front.

The LCC, Gil-ayab said, is the overall operational command of the whole NPA in Kalinga.

He added elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were legitimate targets of NPA attacks as these “OplanBayanihan” troops were actually security forces of large-scale mining firms which would destroy the environment and expropriate ancestral lands to the detriment of indigenous peoples. – AD and Charlie Lagasca