3 NPAs killed in Sorsogon; mining firm equipment torched in Isabela

SORSOGON CITY, Sorsogon/ TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan — Three New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed in an encounter with soldiers in Juban, Sorsogon while a separate band of guerrillas torched mining equipment in Dinapigue, Isabela, the other day.

Major General Yerson E. Depayso, commander of the army’s 9th Infantry Division, said the identities of the slain rebels were still being verified after the clash that happened in Sitio Baybay, Barangay Tinago in Juban around 5:40 a.m. last Wednesday

The 25-minute gun battle broke out as a security patrol of the 31st Infantry Battalion and 903rd Infantry Brigade came under fire from a band of 15 NPA rebels.

Depayso said the soldiers were securing a medical mission led by the Philippine Army and a private group when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by the NPA went off, wounding two soldiers.

After the clash, soldiers seized from the encounter site a .45 caliber pistol, one AK-47 assault rifle, and a KG-9 machine gun belonging to the slain rebels.

Mining firm attack In Isabela province, around 30 heavily-armed NPA guerrillas swooped down on the Geogen Nickel Asia Corporation’s compound and set fire to two dump trucks, a 6X6 truck, a bulldozer, a payloader, five backhoes, an Isuzu D-Max pickup, a Mitsubishi Pajero, and a Nissan Terrano.

Ramil Amugen, the mining firm’s head of security, said attack on the compound in the coastal Barangay Dimalwadi, Dinapigue town, happened at 7 a.m. last Wednesday.

A few hours later, the Reynaldo Pinion Command of the NPA Central Isabela Front owned up to the attack and blamed the mining firm for allegedly grabbed at least 13 hectares of ancestral land owned by the Agta indigenous people.