6 NPA rebels killed in Negros encounter

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Six suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas were killed in an encounter in Candoni, Negros Occidental yesterday.

The military has yet to identify the fatalities, who were believed to be remnants of a dismantled NPA faction operating in the Visayas, according to Brig. Gen. Joey Escanillas, chief of the Army’s 302nd Infantry Brigade.

Soldiers of the Army’s 47th and 15th Infantry Battalions were responding to a report about the presence of armed men in Barangay Gatuslao when they encountered the guerrillas.

The firefight lasted 45 minutes before the rebels retreated, leaving behind their dead comrades.

The military said the troopers recovered eight rifles at the scene of the encounter.

Escanillas expressed belief the rebels were recruiting residents to join the revolutionary movement or gathering information about the establishment of a palm oil plantation in the area, which the group is reportedly opposing.

In the past years, the village of Gatuslao has seen numerous encounters between government security forces and communist groups operating in southern Negros.

Although the southwest and southeast factions of the NPA have already been dismantled, Escanillas said the military has yet to determine if the remaining insurgents have recruited new members.

He said it was also possible that the remaining members of the dismantled rebel faction is being augmented by comrades from other areas of Negros Island.

Escanillas said the boundary of two Negros provinces,  where the clash occurred yesterday, was a known rebel stronghold.

Col. Rainerio de Chavez, Negros Occidental police director, ordered the Candoni police to check hospitals and other medical facilities for possible presence of rebels seeking treatment of gunshot wounds.