NPA landmine kills 9 troops in Surigao

BUTUAN CITY — The New People’s Army (NPA) claimed yesterday that nine Army soldiers were killed and an undetermined others wounded when the truck carrying them hit a roadside landmine planted by rebels in a barangay in Surigao del Sur last Saturday.

Reacting to the claim, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said yesterday the supposed ambush was "a product of the fertile imagination" of the NPA and did not take place.

Col. Francisco Simbajon, Army 4th Infantry Division spokesman, said over local radio station dxBR that the military had not yet received any information about the reported attack.

Speaking over the same radio station, George Madlos alias Ka Oris, NPA spokesman in Mindanao, said the soldiers were escorting a truck loaded with logs during the night when the truck drove into the booby trap in Road 4, Bagong Silang-San Miguel, Barangay Bigaan, Hinatuan.

Eight soldiers were allegedly killed in the blast, and the ninth died in hospital while undergoing treatment, he added.

Last Saturday, Caraga Region police under Chief Superintendent Rene Jamolod Elumbaring reported that NPA rebels ambushed a logging truck of the Paper Industries Corp. of the Philippines at about 8:20 a.m. after hitting several landmines in the same area.

No one was hurt among the six soldiers, the police added.

Madlos and Simbajon accidentally met at the radio station during the live interview anchored by broadcaster Erwin Dano over Bombo Radyo Butuan.

Both claimed their respective reports to be accurate. — Ben Serrano, Jaime Laude