'NPA spreading lies on Ecija clash fatalities'

FORT MAGSAYSAY, Palayan City – The communist New People’s Army is spreading black propaganda, claiming that nine military soldiers were waylaid by armed guerrillas during an ambush last week.

Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, commanding general of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division told The STAR that the NPA’s claims that nine soldiers were massacred during an armed encounter was devoid of truth, saying it was part of its propaganda campaign to discredit the military operating in Aurora, Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya.

“The NPA is spreading the canard that nine of our soldiers were killed during an encounter in Bongabon. I say this is far from the truth. These are pure lies emanating from their ranks,” he said. He maintained that only one soldier was killed and two others wounded during an ambush of the convoy by the NPA Saturday in Barangay Labi, Bongabon Saturday.

A highly reliable source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The STAR that several soldiers were killed in the armed clashes since the firefighting erupted last week. The source said at least five soldiers were killed by sniper fire from the rebels who ambushed an M-35 truck that left Barangay Decoliat, Ma. Aurora on the way to Labi in Bongabon. Armed encounters were also reported in Ma. Aurora and Pantabangan.

The STAR source said the five soldiers were killed when rebels fired at their FV and L-300 vehicles in Barangay Villarica, Pantabangan. “The lone soldier killed was in Bongabon but those in Pantabangan had gone unreported,” the source claimed.

Reports reaching The STAR also said that NPA rebels who scampered away from pursuing government troops are now running out of food supplies and had carted away the food of local folk in Pantabangan who had fled the areas where the encounters took place and sought temporary shelter in schools.

Villanueva said three groups of NPA guerrillas were involved in the series of encounters, one from Nueva Ecija and two from Aurora, each composed of a whole platoon numbering between 20 to 30 armed militants.

He said soldiers are having a hard time catching the rebels because they have sought refuge in thickly forested areas in the tri-boundaries of Nueva Ecija, Aurora and Nueva Vizcaya. Some of the rebels also mingled with civilians to avoid detection.