14 soldiers killed in Cordillera clashes

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – One more Army enlisted man was killed in an encounter in Isabela yesterday, bringing to 14 the number of a soldiers slain in a week of series of firefights with the seemingly resurgent New People’s Army rebels in Northeastern Luzon areas.

According to reports, the still unidentified soldier, reportedly from the Army’s 502nd Infantry Brigade, died in a firefight with the communist guerillas at remote Barangay Ueg, San Mariano town in central Isabela yesterday morning. 

This was the latest in a series of clashes between state forces and NPA fighters in remote parts of Mt. Province, Abra and Kalinga in a week amid the government’s intensified operations against remnants of communist elements in Northern Luzon, where the Isabela-based Army’s 5th Infantry Division operates.

“Our casualties are normal results of our intensified campaign against the remaining (armed rebels) in the areas. These incidents do not mean that the insurgency is gaining strength,” said Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of the 5th ID’s civil-military operations battalion. 

The rebel groups, the Army said, have also suffered heavy casualties in the ensuing firefights as evidenced by the fresh blood stains seen along their escape routes.

“They are only out to use these encounters for possible propaganda value to make an impression that they are still a force to reckon with, possibly in connection with the coming elections,” he said.

Besides the government fatalities, at least 10 Army operatives were also wounded in the firefights since Jan. 27 wherein five soldiers were killed in an encounter with members of the NPA’s Kilusang Larangang Gerilya of the Ilocos Regional Party Committee along the Bontoc-Sagada town border.

“Our troops were there to provide security to the construction of the multimillion-peso Halsema Highway project of the national government when they chanced upon the rebels,” Magundayao said.

Killed during the firefight were Corporal Napoleon Ramirez, Private First Class Joseph Casem, Private First Class Velasco Mayao, Private First Class Joey Corpuz and Private First Class Camilo Abad, all from the Army’s 50th Infantry Battalion.

Four days later, five more soldiers from the 41st IB were killed in a reported ambush staged by the traditionally Maoist rebels along Abra’s Tubo-Malibcong town border.

Their Army colleagues, Magundayao said, were conducting pursuit operations against communist rebels, whom another group of government soldiers have encountered earlier in the day, when they were waylaid along the way by the rebels.  

This was followed by another reported ambush in Kalinga where three soldiers were killed while on their way to a hot pursuit operation against communist guerillas in the area.

Colonel Remegio de Vera of the Army’s 501st IB said his men were running after a group of armed rebels when another pack of communist guerrillas ambushed them at Barangay Mabaca in Balbalan, Kalinga.