DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 15, 2008) – Philippine troops killed a communist rebel commander in a clash in the southern region of Mindanao, officials said Monday.
Officials said soldiers also overran a rebel base of the New People's Army in the village of Tamayong in Calinan district in Davao City.
The weekend fighting killed Faustino Libot, leader of an NPA assassination unit called Sparrow, said Col. Roland Baustista, spokesman for the Army's 10th Infantry Division.
"Troops killed Libot in the fighting in Calinan and we recovered his M16 rifle. We also captured an NPA rebel base in the area," he said.
Baustista said the operation against the NPA still continue in the outskirts of Davao City, where the rebels are active.
The NPA is holding First Lieutenant Vicente Cammayo since November 7 after rebel forces attacked his unit and killed two soldiers and a government militia in a fierce firefight in Casoon village in the town of Monkayo in Compostela Valley province.
Aside from Cammayo, the rebels also captured Police Officer 3 Eduardo Tumol, a member of the 1105th Provincial Mobile Group, who was arrested on November 5 by the NPA at a checkpoint in the village of Baogo in Davao Oriental's Caraga town.
The NPA said both Cammayo and Tumol are being investigated for possible human rights violations and other crimes related to the operations of the Special Forces and the Provincial Mobile Group in Mindanao.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is fighting the government the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. Peace talks between Manila and the CPP-NPA collapsed in 2004 after both sides failed to sign an agreement ending hostilities in the countryside. (Mindanao Examiner)
No comments:
Post a Comment