NPAs execute Army intel officer

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – New People’s Army (NPA) rebels executed a military intelligence officer last Saturday, a day after they seized him in Monkayo, Compostela Valley.

Senior Superintendent Ronald de la Rosa, Compostela Valley police director, said the body of S/Sgt. Rolen Maglangit, an intelligence officer of the Army’s 36th Infantry Battalion based in Agusan del Sur, was found at the boundary of Kilometers 14 and 15 in Barangay Pasian, Monkayo town.

Autopsy showed that Mangangit’s body bore 13 gunshot wounds from an M-16 Armalite rifle and two more from an M-14 rifle.

The insurgents snatched the motorcycle-riding Maglangit as he stopped at a checkpoint, which they had put up along the national highway in Pasian last Friday.

De la Rosa said Maglangit could have been executed in firing squad fashion with his back facing the insurgents.

Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, condemned the killing of Maglangit.

“They have switched to a mode wherein they are willing to violate human rights and put justice into their own hands,” he said.

Meanwhile, the NPA also reportedly killed two CAFGU members in Barangay Awao, Monkayo town last Saturday afternoon.

De la Rosa said the two victims, identified as Rico Morado and Mario Intik, had four bullets wounds each in the head.

In a related development, a ranking NPA officer in Occidental Mindoro was killed in an encounter with government troops in Mamburao town last Saturday morning, the military said.

1Lt. Celeste Frank Sayson, public information officer of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, identified the slain rebel leader as a certain Ka Asero of Platoon 2 of the NPA’s Island Committee-Mindoro.

Sayson said Asero was killed in Sitio Tugas, Barangay Tangkalan where his group was enticing villagers to join the underground movement.

A firefight ensued, killing Asero on the spot and wounding a civilian. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe and Arnell Ozaeta