9 NPA rebels killed in Tarlac encounter

TARLAC CITY — Nine communist guerrillas, including the known oldest rebel in the province, were killed in a six-hour gunfight with government troopers in Gov. Jose Yap Sr.’s upland hometown of San Jose last Monday.

Military authorities described the incident as "the second big blow" to the New People’s Army (NPA) in the province this year. The first was the killing of 14 rebels, including Nelson Mesina, the suspected provincial NPA commander, and other ranking leaders in a clash in Sta. Ignacia town last January.

Elements of the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion also captured three rebels, including a 17-year-old pregnant woman, in the San Jose clash. The amazon’s husband was among those killed.

Three soldiers were seriously wounded in the encounter: Capt. Jericho Rabago, Sgt. Alfredo Malapit and Pfc. Edwin Bote.

Only four of the nine NPA casualties were identified, namely, Oscar Estrada, alias Ka Puto and Ka Uban; a certain Ka Emma, Marcelino de la Cruz and Johnny Daquio alias Ka Jack.

Estrada was known to be the oldest NPA rebel operating in the province. He used to belong to the defunct Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (formerly called Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon during World War II) of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP).

But when self-exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison broke away from the PKP and established the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Estrada sided with the HMB faction led by former rebel leader Bernabe "Commander Dante" Buscayno and became one of the NPA’s founding members.

The NPA was founded in Capas town, hometown of both Estrada and Buscayno, on March 29, 1969.

The three captured rebels were identified as Melani de la Cruz, whose husband Marcelino was among those killed; Junjun Morales, 18; and Gerardo Blanco, 17. — With Ric Sapnu