3 soldiers killed, 4 hurt in NPA ambush in Abra

Three soldiers were killed while four others were hurt after New People’s Army (NPA) rebels waylaid troops in Abra province, in two related ambushes on Saturday early morning, a military official said. Col. Loreto Magundayao of the Philippine Army’s 5th Infantry Division identified the fatalities as Privates First Class (Pfc) Philip Balonggay, Joel Soria and Onofre Duca. The three soldiers were aboard a vehicle of the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion when they were ambushed at 5:30 a.m. Saturday by members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Lenneng village in the upland town of Baay-Licuan, the military official said. About 30 minutes later, Army reinforcements were again ambushed in nearby Bunglo village. Injured in the two ambushes were Corporal William Gonzales, Pfc Ronald Siazon, Pfc Celso Quilang, and another unidentified soldier, according to Magundayao. The rebels were also able to seize two M16 rifles, an M60 machine gun and documents from soldiers during the attack, he added. In a separate statement, the NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was their way of “punishing" the soldiers for supposed human rights violations against the local populace. The rebel command said that the Army’s 41st IB has been involved in “terrorizing" indigenous Tinggian communities in the area and in serving as "security escorts" of mining firms — the reason they gave for launching the ambush. "Tinggian communities have been terrorized with indiscriminate bombings, machinegun strafing, illegal arrest and detention, torture, and murder… Witchhunting were common, mobility and travel were restricted, and agricultural production and small scale mining were hampered," the group said in a statement posted on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) website Saturday night. The CPP provides political leadership to the NPA, which has been waging armed struggle for 41 years now to establish a Marxist state in the world’s 12th most populous nation. The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), an alliance of underground organizations supporting the CPP-NPA's armed struggle, has recently welcomed the creation of a new government panel towards resuming the stalled peace talks.—With Joel Nueva/ACC/JV, GMANews.TV