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Clash mars school opening in ComVal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:08 pm | Monday, June 3rd, 2013
SOLDIERS
unload from an Army truck the body of a suspected rebel slain in a
clash between government troops and the New People’s Army in Tubo-tubo,
Monkayo, Compostela Valley, on Monday. FRINSTON LIM/INQUIRER MINDANAO
MONKAYO, Compostela Valley—What was supposed to be an exciting
first day of school for pupils and parents in Tubo-tubo village here
turned into a nightmarish scene as a deadly clash between government
troops and suspected communist rebels erupted early on Monday,
authorities said.
Distraught parents rushed to the premises of Tubo-tubo Elementary
School in Tubo-tubo village and grabbed their terrified children, as
soldiers and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels exchanged fire on a hill
some 2 kilometers away, according to Sozonte Puedan, principal of the
700-student elementary school.
A young male rebel, aged between 16 to 20, was the lone fatality
while two government troops, Pfc. Junrey Pioch and militiaman Sergio
Ybañez, suffered nonlife-threatening wounds as the two sides fought for
over an hour, Senior Superintendent Camilo Cascolan, Compostela Valley
police chief, said.
Pacita Baluis, a Grade 4 teacher, said the village became on edge
as the military launched air strikes, with two MG-520 helicopter
gunships firing rockets at the suspected position of the rebels in Purok
9, Tubo-tubo.
The firefight was a result of a four-day operation by troops from
the Army’s 25th Infantry Battalion (IB) and the 1001st Division Recon
Company against a group of rebels numbering about 30 from the NPA’s
Front 25 and led by a certain Commander Ade, said Lt. Col. Cesar Molina,
25th IB commander.
Molina said the fighting was centered in the middle of an oil palm plantation on a hill some 2 km from the village proper.
“We had received reports about a group of armed men and women
holing up there, possibly preparing for their extortion activities, so
we conducted an operation and this is now the result,” Lt. Ernest
Carolina, 25th IB civil military operations chief, said.
Carolina said he suspected the said NPA group was behind the
spate of harassment and extortion activities against civilians and small
businesses in Monkayo and the nearby town of Compostela, after
communist insurgents were also tagged as behind the kidnapping of a
lumber trader and five others in Monkayo.
Military and police officials have linked the abduction to the
victims’ alleged refusal to pay up to the NPA’s so-called revolutionary
tax.
Betty Dionisio, a resident of Purok 8, returned to the school
minutes after she had accompanied her two grandchildren, who are in
Grade 1 and kindergarten, respectively, as the firing over the distant
hill persisted.
“I had trouble locating the children and was very worried because
my husband was still in our hut guarding our farm animals and there
were already loud explosions from the hill,” the 52-year-old farmer told
the Inquirer. She eventually found her two grandchildren and took them
to the village center.
At least three families near the site of the incident descended to the village proper for safety.
Molina said pursuit operations were launched at the fleeing rebels.
Aside from the body of the slain rebel, soldiers also recovered
an M-16 rifle, rounds of ammunition, a green NPA shirt, communication
and tracking equipment, and a detonating cord from an improvised
explosive. Frinston L. Lim, Inquirer Mindanao
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