3 suspected NPA rebels killed in Negros, Agusan clashes

Three suspected communist rebels were killed in two separate clashes with government security forces in central and southern Philippines Friday, police and military officials said. Two of the rebels died in Manapla town in Negros Occidental province when elements of the 12th Infantry Battalion engaged 30 insurgents in Hacienda Rosa in San Pablo village about 5 a.m. Friday. No casualties on the government side were reported, said Chief Inspector Rico Santotome Jr., spokesperson for the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office. Two M16 rifles were recovered from the rebels, Santotome added. In Agusan del Norte, elements of the Army 6th Scout Ranger Company swooped down on a suspected rebel lair in Sitio Kiholao, Guinabsan village in Buenavista town about 5:30 a.m. Friday. A two-hour firefight erupted, resulting in the death of another rebel and the recovery of four M16 rifles, two Claymore mines, a generator and subversive documents, said Maj. Gen. Arturo Ortiz, commander of the Army Special Operations Command. An Army enlisted personnel was wounded in the clash, Ortiz added. The clashes occurred as the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, prepares to celebrate its 41st founding anniversary on March 29. In June 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered government forces to crush the communist insurgency by the time her term ends on June 30 this year. Peace negotiations, meanwhile, have remain stalled since August 2004. - RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV