2 CAFGUs hurt in NPA clash in Agusan del Sur

BUTUAN CITY — Two members of the Armed Forces’ civilian component were hurt in an encounter with communist insurgents in the southern Philippine province of Agusan del Sur at the weekend. The clash occurred between the Army’s 26th Infantry Division and about 40 members of the New People’s Army — the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines — in the village of Banag-Banag in Sibagat town, Agusan del Sur last Saturday morning. The Caraga Region police said the two wounded Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) members were brought to a hospital in Prosperidad town. The police did not identify the two men. The encounter occurred a day after government forces from the Army’s 30th Infantry Battalion and 6th Scout Ranger Company engaged about 100 NPA members led by a certain Alyas Joker in a three-hour gun battle in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte. At least two were killed in the earlier encounter — Private First Class Benjiamen Ortizano, a member of the 6th Scout Ranger Company, and an unidentified NPA member. — Ben Serrano/SMD/NPA, GMANews.TV