DAVAO CITY –Government troops captured a communist rebel following a clash Sunday in the southern Filipino province of Davao Oriental, an army spokesman said.
Maj. Ezra Balagtey, of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the fighting broke out in the village called Maragatas in Lupon town after patrolling soldiers ran into a group of New People’s Army rebels.
He said troops recovered an M16 automatic rifle, an anti-tank landmine, personal belongings and subversive documents left behind by fleeing rebels after a 30-minute running gunbattle in the area where troops captured the 28-year old Joaquin Linma.
Balagtey said there were no casualties on their side. He said the rebels were reportedly extorting money from villagers.
He said Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, condemned the extortion and atrocities of the NPA and ordered troops to strengthen security in villages and intensify the campaign against the rebel group, and at the same time urged the communist fighters to surrender peacefully.
“The community is tired of this felonious activity of these bandits that while they are busy on their extortion more information coming from the community that led the troops to locate them. It is for this reason that we are calling on our deceived brothers to lay down their arms and return to the folds of the law and live peacefully with their families,” Balagtey quoted Baladad as saying.
Just recently, four soldiers were killed in Bukidnon province after rebels detonated a roadside bomb on a passing military truck. And communist rebels are still holding four government soldiers – Pfc. Alvin Ricarte, Cpl. Benjamin Enot Samano, Pvts. Marnel Cinches and Jerrel Yurong – and three policemen PO3 Democrito Polvorosa, PO1 Marichel Contemplo and PO1 Junrie as prisoners of war in the restive region.
The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging separatist war for many decades now. (Mindanao Examiner)
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