Cotabato villagers flee homes

COTABATO CITY – About a thousand villagers have fled from their homes after marauding New People’s Army guerillas ambushed yesterday a platoon of patrolling soldiers in Tulunan, North Cotabato, precipitating a firefight that triggered panic in the area.

An NPA identified as Jimmy Camin, also known as Ka Adonis, was wounded in the encounter in Barangay Bacung, Tulunan, which waned only when the rebels ran out of ammunition, forcing them to retreat to a nearby forested area, carrying some seven wounded comrades.

Lt. Col. Milfredo Meligrito, commander of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, said his men were on their way to a secluded area in Barangay Bacung to verify the reported recruitment activities there of the NPA’s Guerilla Front 72 when they were ambushed by the rebels, forcing them to return fire.

Meligrito said NPA guerillas have lately intensified their collection of “revolutionary taxes” in villages in Tulunan, apparently to raise funds needed to sustain the training of their new recruits.

Local officials said yesterday’s hostilities in Barangay Bacung drove about a thousand villagers to safer grounds for fear of a repeat of the encounter, where soldiers and the NPAs used heavy firepower in trying to overcome each other.