Top Red leader killed in Mindanao clash

MANILA: A ranking leader of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) and his comrade were slain in an encounter in Davao del Sur province in Mindanao even as government officials and their rebel counterparts prepared to resume peace talks within the 60day “timeline” given by President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte.

Major Ezra Balagley, the spokesman of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, identified the slain NPA leader as Julito Pueblas who was seriously wounded but died as he was about to be airlifted to a hospital from the encounter site in a “barangay” (village) in the town of Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur at noon on Saturday.

Balagley said Pueblas headed an NPA unit operating in Davao del Sur as well as in some parts of Davao City, the hometown of Duterte.

Balagley added an “amazon” or a woman rebel was also captured in the clash that also wounded an Army corporal who was declared out of danger by attending physicians in a military hospital.

The encounter was the latest involving government forces and the insurgents as Duterte reiterated he would allow the resumption of the stalled peace talks within a 60-day “timeline” to be held in the Philippines.

On Monday, Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) who is on exile in the Netherlands, said he accepted Duterte’s invitation to return to the Philippines to participate in the negotiations.