PAGADIAN CITY – Government troops killed a senior communist leader in a firefight that left 2 soldiers wounded in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Norte, an army spokesman said Thursday.
Major Ronald Suscano, of the 1st Infantry Division, said Edwin Lapinig, commander of the New People’s Army in Western Mindanao, was slain in Sindangan town where police commandos, backed by soldiers were trying to arrest him on Wednesday.
Lapinig opened fire on security forces that triggered the gun battle. No soldiers or policemen were killed or wounded in the firefight, said Suscano, who branded the slain rebel commander as a “notorious terrorist leader.”
Suscano said: “Lapinig was killed when he fired at the combined police and military forces which prompted the government forces to fire back. The law enforcement operation resulted to the death of Lapinig and the wounding of two soldiers.”
Security forces tracked down Lapinig’s hideout following a long intelligence operation in the province. The rebel leader, who had a string of criminal cases, was also tagged as behind the killing of 2 soldiers and the disarming of policemen in Don Victoriano Chiongbian town in the neighboring province of Misamis Occidental, and the series of arson attacks on construction sites in Zamboanga Peninsula.
Army Major General Roseller Murillo, commander of the Joint Task Force ZAMPELAN, said operations still continue in the Zamboanga Peninsula and nearby provinces where communist rebels are actively operating.
“We will continue our security operations in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the civilians,” he said and at the same time urged families and relatives of rebels to convince communist fighters to abandon their armed struggle and return to the fold of the law and avail of the government’s amnesty program.
The rebels have been fighting for many decades now for the establishment of a separate Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
20
