3 foreigners with NPAs in clash still unknown

By Charlie Lagasca

ECHAGUE, Isabela – Authorities are still trying to  identity three foreigners reportedly seen with New People’s Army rebels in the Nov. 17 clash with government troops in a remote village here  which left seven soldiers and five guerrillas dead.

Sources said civilians saw two Caucasians tagging along with some 30 rebels during the five-hour running gun battle with elements of the Army’s 502nd Infantry Brigade in Mabbayad village.

On Tuesday, source said the three foreigners reportedly seen with communist rebels during the clash were Dutch students.   

The Dutch women were said to be conducting a study on the crocodile conservation efforts of the Isabela-based Mabuwaya Foundation.

The source said one of the foreigners was among the 12 fatalities in the five-hour encounter between the rebels and members of the Reconnaissance Company of the Army’s 502nd Infantry Brigade (IB) in Echague’s Mabbayad village.

Mabuwaya, which is affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund, is a non-government group working for the conservation of the Philippine crocodiles. 

The foundation has a crocodile breeding center in San Mariano town, and a crocodile sanctuary in the wilds of the San Mariano-Divilacan area.  

But Marites Gatan-Balabas, deputy director of the Mabuwaya Foundation, denied having foreigners in their group. “Aside from that, our students are in  Maconacon and Divilacan (Isabela coastal towns),” she said.  

“We receive reports about the presence of foreigners tagging along with the rebels during the encounter. But we could not ascertain if they were indeed with the lawless group or just happened to be there,” Col. Loreto Magundayao, spokesman for  the Gamu, Isabela-based Army’s 5th Infantry Division, which has jurisdiction over the 502nd IB, said.

“Maybe they were there not necessarily with the lawless group. Maybe they just happened to be there when the encounter occurred,” said Magundayao.

The military, according to reports, is still investigating this, especially since one of the foreigners was said to be among the fatalities in the clash, which erupted at around 4:30 a.m. at the boundary of Echague and San Mariano towns.

The seven soldiers slain in the encounter were identified as 2Lt. Jimnah Torrepalma, Sgt. Eduardo Arguero, Cpl. Jondy Larebersole, and Pfcs. Joemar Miguel, Jerold Mina, Albert Lagua, and Raul Alunday.

Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of the 5th Infantry Division’s civil-military operations battalion, said six of the soldiers were killed on the spot while Alunday died while being treated at a military hospital

.

Seven other soldiers, among them Pfc. Robert Samut, are still undergoing treatment for gunshot wounds.

All of them belong to the 502nd Infantry Brigade’s Reconnaissance Company based in Isabela’s Jones town, which is under the jurisdiction of the 5th ID.

According to reports, at least five NPA rebels were killed and at least eight others were wounded in the encounter.

The Army said the figures were based on field reports, as no bodies of the slain guerrillas were recovered.

“The encounter took place while our troops were conducting security operations to ensure the safe implementation of all impending national government projects in the area. They were fired upon by the lawless group,” Magundayao said.

Government forces earlier had engaged in pre-dawn skirmishes with the insurgents along the foothills of the Sierra Madre ranges.

The rebels, believed to belong to the NPA’s Benito Tesorio Command based here, alleged that they seized three machine guns, four M-16 Armalite rifles, and an M-16 baby Armalite from the government side.

The encounter was the worst setback for the Army in Northern Luzon since last April’s ambush-slay by NPA guerrillas of 11 members of the 85th Infantry Battalion in Tinoc, Ifugao. A female civilian was also slain in the attack.