COTABATO CITY — Nine members of the New People’s Army were killed in an encounter with soldiers in four barangays in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon early Monday.
The commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo, and officials of the Bukidnon Provincial Police separately confirmed at noontime Monday that nine members of the NPA, most known now as “communist terrorist group” in military and police parlance, perished in gunfights with soldiers in Barangays Can-ayan, Kibalabag, Kulaman and Mapulo, all in Malaybalay City.
Local officials had told reporters that they received information stating that three of the slain NPAs were women.
“We are now validating that information. We are also trying to determine if villagers were displaced by the hostilities in secluded areas in these barangays where these NPAs forcibly collect money and food from poor people on a regular basis,” a barangay official, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told reporters on Facebook Messenger.
Initial reports reaching the office of Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the Philippine Army, stated that the gunfights in the four barangays erupted when NPAs opened fire at soldiers approaching their locations, dispatched after villagers had reported seeing armed groups on hills overlooking their farming enclaves.