DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 21, 2008) – Government soldiers captured two communist rebel leaders after a firefight in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.
Officials said troops, from the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion, also overran a rebel encampment of the New People’s Army in the village of Sinoran in the town of Santa Cruz in Davao del Sur province on Monday.
Army Captain Rosa Manuel, of the 10th Infantry Division, said soldiers recovered clamor mines and fragmentation grenades inside the rebel camp. The fighting, she said, lasted more than 30 minutes.
The two captured NPA leaders - Jestoni Joaquin and his deputy Jonathan Yagu – were being interrogated by the military. Joaquin is a team leader of the NPA’s Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda 2.
Joaquin’s group was said to be planning to attack security forces when troops swooped on the NPA camp and engaged the rebels in a gun battle, Manuel said.
Manuel said villagers tipped off troops under Lt. Col. Glyndon Paniza about the presence of the rebel base in the town.
“This discovery of the NPA encampment and the apprehension of these communist rebel leaders were attributed to the locals, who informed us of the presence of NPAs in their village,” she said.
It was the second NPA camp captured by troops since Sunday in Mindanao. Army Special Forces also overran a training base after a clash with rebels in the hinterland village of Casoon in Compostela Valley's Monkayo town.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting for almost four decades now to overthrow the democratic government and install a Maoist state in the Philippines.
The United States and the European Union blacklisted the CPP and NPA, including its political wing, the National Democratic Front, on Manila's prodding and froze their assets abroad after peace talks failed in 2004. (Mindanao Examiner)
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