NPA killed in Bukidnon battle – military

The military reported Thursday that a New People’s Army (NPA) fighter was killed in a fierce gunbattle between government security forces and communist rebels in Sitio Ngaran, Barangay Kipilas, Kitaotao, Bukidnon.

Troops from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Battalion (3rd IB) were still pursuing the fleeing rebels, the report said.

The encounter happened on Sunday morning after a team from the 3rd IB was sent to Ngaran to check a report about the presence of NPA guerrillas there.

At least 30 heavily armed rebels, believed to from the NPA Guerilla Front 56 of Sub-Regional Command 5, engaged the team twice before withdrawing.

During the second battle that lasted for almost two hours, one rebel was killed, the report said.

But a lumad rights group in Davao City said the fatality was not a communist rebel but a community leader it identified as Datu Kaylo Bontolan.

Jong Monzon, secretary general of Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organization in Southern Mindanao, said on Thursday the lumad leaders of the Salugpongan Ta Tanu Igkanugon expressed grief over the death of Bontolan, a council member and deputy secretary general of Pasaka, the federation of Lumad in Southern Mindanao.