CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Communist rebels set off a roadside bomb on a military truck transporting soldiers sparking a gunbattle that killed one gunman and four soldiers in Bukidnon province in southern Philippines, officials said Thursday.
Officials said three more soldiers were wounded in the attack. The soldiers were heading Wednesday to San Fernando town where New People’s Army rebels were threatening to burn construction equipment in the village of Makalungay when the explosion occurred.
Major Ezra Balagtey, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the fighting lasted 45 minutes. “The skirmish resulted to one NPA killed and recovery of one M653 (Carbine) rifle while the responding troops suffered four killed and three wounded mostly caused by landmine explosion,” he said.
He said Major General Aurelio Baladad, who heads the Eastern Mindanao Command, directed military forces to intensify the operation against the rebel group and for troops to protect vital government projects and civilian communities against the NPA.
“The death of our soldiers securing the project will not be put in vain. This supreme sacrifice they have demonstrated will be the bastion of peace and progress in Eastern Mindanao. While we grieve for their loss, we also remain steadfast in our quest to achieve our mission for secure and progressive communities of the region,’’ Balagtey quoted Baladad as saying.
The NPA is waging a separatist war in the country for the past decades now. (Mindanao Examiner)
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