2 female studes among 6 killed in Army-NPA encounter

LEGAZPI CITY — "Akala ko sa Cebu ka magbabakasyon. Dito ka naman lang pala sa Labo (I thought you would take a vacation in Cebu. You were here in Labo all along)."

Muttering these words, Elizabeth Lucillo was a mother in anguish as she watched the body of her 22-year-old daughter Suzette, an Electrical Engineering student of the Bicol University.

Suzette and another female student, Liza Lirad, 20, a Political Science student at Ateneo de Naga University, were among six people killed when a platoon of Army soldiers swooped down on a New People’s Army (NPA) camp in Barangay Bagong Silang Dos in Labo, Camarines Norte Saturday morning.

Unbeknowst to her parents, who own a printing press in Daraga, Albay, Suzette was a ranking cadre in charge of the computer operations of the NPA’s Front Committee 72.

"She asked for my permission to pursue her studies in Cebu a few months ago," Mrs. Lucillo recalled. She and her husband Romy claimed Suzette’s remains after a Mass in front of the Labo town hall.

The remains of Lirad, who hailed from Libmanan, Camarines Sur, were claimed by her uncle.

Also killed in the firefight were Carlito Apigo, head of the NPA’s Front Committee 72 which operates in the Camarines Norte towns of Calabanga, Sta. Elena and Jose Panganiban; and a certain Ka Miguel and Ka Leonard. The sixth fatality remains unidentified.

Eight other rebels were wounded and six, four of them women, were captured in the 30-minute firefight.

The clash erupted when elements of the Army’s 31st Infantry Battalion led by Lt. Col. Emiliano Gupano attacked the NPA camp in Barangay Bagong Silang Dos at about 6:30 a.m. last Saturday.

Gupano said they asked the rebels to surrender but the guerrillas instead fired at them.

"They were conducting a meeting to discuss their plans to hold a massive rally on Labor Day, and to identify barangay officials they would support in the coming elections," he said.

Those captured were identified as Myla Pajabira, 16, who had just graduated from the Bagong Silang North High School; Jinelyn Palma, 23; Bernardo Javier Jr., 17; Salome Carlos Geronimo, 50, and her husband Felix; and Erlinda Carlos Montero, 48.

Soldiers found 45 blasting caps, three M-16 rifles, an M-14 rifle, two laptop computers and accessories, printed propaganda materials and four boxes of documents at the NPA camp.

Batangas encounter

In a related development, four NPA guerrillas were killed in a running gunbattle with the police in Tanauan town over the weekend. Seven other insurgents were captured.

Those killed were identified only as Ka Jerry, Ka Jack, Ka Intoy and Ka Louie, and those arrested as Melvin Mendoza, 21; Marlon Alhambra, 38; Mario Braga, 36; Celso Dimaculangan, 34; Renato Hiwatig, 44; Fortune Hiwatig, 23; and Azrel Pulido, 30.

A policeman, SPO1 Melencio Landicho, and two bystanders, Reynaldo dela Cruz, 34, and Richard Recio, 16, were wounded.

Superintendent Leopoldo Marquez, police community relations officer, said members of the 402nd Mobile Group and the Tanauan police, who were manning a checkpoint in Barangay Sambat, tried to stop a Toyota Hi-Ace with license plate WLN-749 Saturday night.

But occupants of the vehicle did not heed their call and instead sped away, prompting the police officers to give chase. They were cornered in Sto. Tomas town.

When the lawmen tried to approach the vehicle, one of its occupants opened fire with an M-16 Armalite rifle, hitting Landicho in the leg.

Seizing the opportunity, the group drove toward the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road and abandoned their vehicle in Malvar town where they escaped on foot.

The pursuing lawmen, however, arrested wounded Azrel Pulido Sunday night. Pulido revealed four of his comrades were killed in the gunbattle and that their bodies were buried in a secluded Malvar barangay.

Pulido said they belong to the NPA’s Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda operating in Batangas and other parts of Southern Luzon.

Seized from the captured rebels were nine M-16 and three Galil HK-53 magazines, a caliber .45 magazine, an M-16 Armalite rifle, a Galil HK-53 rifle, calculators, cellphones and a notebook believed containing a list of revolutionary taxes collected. — With Arnell Ozaeta, Rene Alviar and Ed Amoroso