CEBU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 03, 2007) – Government soldiers captured three New People’s Army rebels, including a leader, in Ormoc City in western Leyte province, officials said.
Officials said troops, from the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion headed Lt. Col. Henry Bumiltac, captured Nicholas Ybañez, Eddie Monticalvo and Gerald Monticalvo at a hideout in the village of Lucso-on over the weekend.
The military said Ybañez is the team leader of the rebel’s Biliran Island White Area Group, while his two companions were NPA couriers. Soldiers seized three handguns and two grenades from the hideout.
In Catbalogan City in nearby Samar province, the military has denied NPA accusations that government soldiers killed 3 people and injured six more after attacking them in a village where rebels are actively operating.
Maj. Othelo Yanez, of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division, said the rebels were behind the attack on Sept. 26 in the village of Calapi. Most of the victims were village officials on their way to report the killing of Ernesto General, a village official in Caranas.
Yanez said the official was also killed by rebels.
Father Santiago Salas, a Catholic priest-turned-rebel leader, said soldiers were behind the killings. (Mindanao Examiner)
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