BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The two New People’s Army rebels, alleged to be the “lookouts” of their comrades in the separate encounters with the 62nd Infantry Battalion soldiers on June 9 in Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, were charged yesterday for illegal possession of firearms.
Himamaylan City police officer-in-charge, Lt. Col. Norberto Barniso, said Kenneth Nabong and Jayson John Gazon, who were arrested in Sitio Cunalom, Brgy. Buenavista in the City, were charged for violation of Republic Act 10591, or the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition, before the City Prosecutor’s Office.
The two yielded two .45 caliber pistols with two magazines containing nine ammunition and two cellular phones, Maj. Cenon Pancito, 3rd Infantry Division spokesman, said.
Barniso said initial police investigation showed that Nabong and Gazon served as “look-outs” of the NPA rebels, who figured in two encounters with the 62nd IB in Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan City.
They were intercepted at almost midnight of June 9 by 94IB soldiers, who were conducting a blocking operation against the fleeing rebels, Barniso said.
He also said that the cadaver of the slain NPA member left at the encounter site in Purok Galaupan, Brgy. Carabalan, has already been claimed by his family at the funeral parlor in Himamaylan City on June 10, but he did not name him.*
