Ambusher of PSG team shot dead by soldiers in Arakan

NORTH COTABATO --- Soldiers shot dead one of the rebels who attacked presidential guards while passing by a stretch of the Davao-Bukidnon Highway in Arakan town in North Cotabato early Wednesday.The encounter in Barangay Napalico, Arakan between retreating New People’s Army guerillas that fired at vehicles carrying members of the Presidential Security Group and responding soldiers erupted an hour after the ambush incident.The scene of the encounter, which resulted in the death of an NPA guerilla, is about four kilometers from Barangay Katipunan, also in Arakan, where rebels attacked the PSG members while on their way to Bukidnon early on.The NPAs, led by Commanders Jayco and Bobby, were blocked promptly by policemen and soldiers while hastily marching to a secluded area in Barangay Napalico, acting on tips by vigilant villagers.Captain Silver Belvis, spokesman of the Army’s 39thInfantry Battalion, said on Thursday that the cadaver of the still unidentified NPA, who carried a bag containing an improvised explosive device, is now in the custody of the Arakan local government unit.Residents have also reported to the military and police that four NPAs, initially identified only as Narding, Sario, Abe, and Jimsom, were hurt in the ensuing encounter.Belvis said they have been receiving persistent feedback since Wednesday night from local folk purporting that more than four NPAs were wounded in the gunfight. But that is something we can't confirm because we don’t have actual physical count of wounded enemies, Belvis said.Supt. Romeo Galgo, Jr., spokesman of the Police Regional Office-12, said personnel of the Arakan municipal police are still trying to identify the NPA fatality.Army officials said it was local villagers who informed them that some of the ambushers were proceeding to a hinterland in Barangay Napalico, enabling them to immediately block their route.The rebels belong to the NPA’s Guerilla Front 53, according to local officials.They first gathered along with comrades from the NPA’s Guerilla Front 56 at a strategic stretch of the Davao-Bukidnon Highway inBarangay Katipunan before dawn Wednesday and set up a checkpoint where to flag down public transportations.Barangay folk told reporters the rebels, clad in Army uniforms with insignia of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Battalion, originally intended to rob commuters and motorists, a plan that went haywire when the unsuspecting PSG team arrived.They fired at the vehicles of the presidential guards when drivers speedily drove through after sensing danger.The PSG team, led by theSgt. Ferbello Galleno,returned fire, preventing the rebels from approaching their vehicles.Galgo said five of Galleno’s companions --- three sergeants and two corporals --- were wounded in the ensuing encounter.Galgo said the rebels also shot dead Ben Pajia, a local member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, while emerging from one side of the highway to check on the bursts of rapid gunfire that reverberated through the scene.They also took with them a villager namedRogelio Genon, a civilian agent of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group residing in Barangay Katipunan, as they fled.