‘Rebel’ slain in Zamboanga del Sur clash

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — A suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla was killed while two others escaped following a brief firefight in Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur yesterday.

Reports said that troopers of the Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion were on their way to check reports about the presence of armed men in Barangay Saad when the rebels opened fire at them in Barangay Saad.

A brief firefight ensued, forcing the gunmen to flee.

Villagers said they saw the fleeing rebels carrying a wounded comrade toward the town proper, supposedly to seek medical attention.

They said the rebels did not reach the town and decided to return to the village as their comrade died along the way.

Col. Richard Verceles, operations chief of the area police command-Western Mindanao, identified the fatality as Martino Ayas, alias Nasser, and those who escaped as Jessel Cabal, alias Sabel, and Nelboy Baron, alias Jundee.

The armed men were reportedly remnants of the NPA’s Western Mindanao Revolutionary Party Committee, Verceles said.

Checkpoints were set up in different areas of the town including in nearby municipalities to apprehend the fleeing rebels.

Ayas and his group were spotted recruiting members for the communist movement in Barangay Saad in August, police said.