NPA rebels kill soldier visiting ailing wife in South RP

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 17, 2010) – Communist rebels killed Wednesday a military intelligence agent who was visiting his ailing wife in the southern Philippines, officials told the Mindanao Examiner.

Officials said the soldier, who belonged to the Army’s Military Intelligence Battalion, was killed before dawn in their house in the village of Lasang in Bunawan district in Davao City, where the insurgents are actively operating.

Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division, said motorcycle gunmen attacked the soldier and escaped after the shooting.

“Corporal Benjie Hupayan, an administrative personnel doing paper works at the Army’s Military Intelligence Battalion, was shot dead by motorcycle riding gunmen using caliber .45 as he was about to visit his wife who is suffering from a heart ailment,” Garcia said.

Major General Carlos Holganza, commander of the army division, also condemned the attack. “Even at dawn Benjie made it a point to go home after receiving a message that his wife is ill. He was a loving husband and a responsible family man. He was unarmed at that time of the attack. This is a clear violation of the basic tenets of human rights.” Holganza said.

Last week, New People’s Army rebels also shot dead a gold miner in Compostela Valley province and abducted his two brothers, one of them was a former insurgent who surrendered to the military several years ago.

The NPA is fighting for decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)