3 more NPAs killed in Sultan Kudarat province

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Soldiers shot dead three more New People’s Army guerillas in a series of clashes Sunday.

The encounter between combined personnel of the Army’s 5^th Special Forces Battalion and the 37^th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Datu Wasay in Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat also left four other NPAs wounded.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division said the slain NPAs were among the rebels whom units under the 603^rd Infantry Brigade encountered early on at Mt. Lumuton in nearby Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat.

No fewer than 150 NPAs tried to converge at Mt. Lumuton near Kalamansig to commemorate in the area last Saturday the 52^nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Personnel of different units under the 603^rd Brigade thwarted the supposed event with ground and air offensives, killing more than 10 rebels in ensuing clashes.

Senior members of the Kalamansig inter-agency peace and order council have confirmed to reporters that among the NPAs who perished in the hostilities in Mt. Lumuton were guerillas from the neighboring Surallah and Lake Sebu towns in South Cotabato.

Uy said members of the 5^th SF Battalion and the 7^th IB were to surround a group of  NPAs resting in a secluded spot in Barangay Datu Wasay, an upland area in Kalamansig, when rebels noticed them and opened fire, sparking an hour-long running gunfight.

Barangay folk identified the three NPA fatalities as Cesar Anding, Ruben Alaza and a certain Edmund, who died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Col. Eduardo Gubat, commander of the 603^rd Brigade, said local officials in Sultan Kudarat’s adjoining Lebak, Kalamansig and Palimbang towns are helping validate circulating stories purporting that four NPAs, all adolescents, were wounded in the incident.

Gubat said soldiers have still been running after the NPAs who fled from Mt. Lumuton following a spate of deadly clashes in the area last week.