Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
BACOLOD CITY: Military operations against the fleeing New People’s Army rebels intensified as another encounter ensued on Thursday in Sitio Banderahan, Barangay Trinidad, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental.
It was the eighth encounter between government troops and the insurgents in Central Negros since October 6. Six of the gun battles took place in Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said that the brief encounter between the 62nd Infantry Battalion (62IB) soldiers and a group of rebels resulted in the recovery of a.45 caliber pistol and a backpack containing personal belongings.
Pasaporte said the rebel group was the same armed men encountered earlier by 62IB soldiers in Barangay Calupaan, Guihulngan City, where a brief firefight also occurred.
Earlier, the followers of slain rebel leader Romeo Nanta also figured in armed skirmishes with soldiers from the 94IB in Sitio Maliko-liko, Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City.
Army soldiers seized the temporary encampment of the rebels which can accommodate 20 persons after the five-minute gun battle.
Recovered from the abandoned camp were women’s personal belongings, a radio and a utility rope. Bloodstains were also discovered in the area, Pasaporte reported.
There were no casualties on the government side in the recent encounters, while Pasaporte raised the possibility that some members of the communist terrorist group may have been injured.
In a statement, Maj. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, 3rd Infantry Division commander, ordered Army troops in Negros to keep on pursuing the fleeing rebels, who he said “are now exhausted and running out of ammunition.”
Pasaporte also gave assurance that the military would facilitate and provide transportation to the civilian evacuees once clearing operations are completed.
Himamaylan Mayor Raymund Tongson clarified that only about 3,500 of the nearly 18,000 people who fled their homes remained in the evacuation centers on Thursday.