1,700 NEGROS OCCIDENTAL VILLAGERS FLEE HOMES AS ARMY, NPA CLASH
BACOLOD CITY—At least 1,700 people fled their homes while classes were suspended for two days to avoid being caught in the crossfire following a series of skirmishes between government troops and communist rebels in Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental province.
Himamaylan Mayor Raymund Tongson said 1,767 residents were housed in two evacuation centers in his city and in the border village of Payao of Binalbagan town.
The residents were forced to move to safer grounds after the clashes between government troopers and communist rebels intensified on Thursday and Friday.
Tongson said the evacuees composed of 436 families from Carabalan were housed in shelters since Thursday although some went home on Friday.
The ongoing military operations restricted movement of rescue teams although assistance was provided to the affected residents still in evacuation centers, he said.
Trapped
A mobile team was put on standby just in case additional evacuees had to be pulled out from Carabalan, a hinterland village in Himamaylan, a city at least 77.3 kilometers south of Bacolod.
Classes in Barangays Carabalan and Cabadiangan in Himamaylan were cancelled to ensure the safety of the students, said the mayor.
The Binalbagan municipal government also suspended classes in Barangays Payao and Biao, which adjoin Carabalan, fearing that the clashes might spread to these villages, said Jearnie Rondin, Binalbagan Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office head.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, Philippine Army’s 303rd Brigade commander, said on Friday that their soldiers had three clashes with suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas in Carabalan since Thursday, with some of the rebels believed to have been trapped inside sugarcane fields.
Pasaporte said he and Lt. Col. Van Donald Almonte, commander of the Army’s 94th Infantry Battalion, conducted an aerial reconnaissance of the encounter sites on Friday on board a Philippine Air Force helicopter to provide real-time information to ground commanders and to have an accurate view of the encounter site and to further assess the ongoing troops operation.