BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Two more suspected New People’s Army rebels died in another encounter with soldiers in Ilog town, Negros Occidental, Saturday.
Maj. Cenon Pancito, 3rd Infantry Division spokesman, said yesterday that the 15th Infantry Battalion soldiers were conducting combat operations when they figured in an encounter with 10 suspected NPA rebels in Sitio Payranan, Brgy. Pinggot, Ilog.
Pancito said the fleeing rebels left their two slain comrades at the encounter site, where soldiers also recovered an AR15 M16 rifle with two magazines containing 40 ammunition, a .45 caliber pistol with seven rounds of ammunition, an anti-personnel landmine with complete accessories, a 12 gauge homemade shotgun, and five backpacks.
No one was hurt among the soldiers, while the identities of the two slain rebels are still being established, he added.
Meanwhile, the two other suspected rebels, who died in an encounter with 15IB soldiers in Brgy. Bulwangan, Hinobaan, Negros Occidental, recently, were buried in the town public cemetery in Brgy. 2 last week.
No one claimed the cadavers of the rebels, identified only through their aliases “Ka Ken Ken” and “Michael/Nonoy”, so they were buried, Lt. Col. Erwin Carino, 15IB commander, said.
“May this tragedy serve as a reflection and lesson to everyone not to be deceived by the lies and propaganda of the terrorist movement,” Carino said.
He said the local government of Hinobaan, the police and the 15IB facilitated the burial of the two.
Hinobaan Mayor Ernesto Estrao said he hopes that the incident will serve as a lesson to those who joined the revolutionary movement. Estrao said he also condemned the presence in Hinobaan of the NPA rebels, who, he said, only brought fear, worries, and chaos among the residents.*
