MALOLOS CITY—A ranking communist rebel and six other guerillas were killed in an encounter with government troops in the mountain town of Donya Remedios Trinidad (DRT) in northeastern Bulacan early yesterday morning.
Aside from dead bodies, the encounter yielded subversive documents and high power fire arms.
Reports reaching the provincial police office at Camp General Alejo Santos here said that elements of the 56th Infantry Battalion led by 1Lt. Ian Lee Galera encountered an undetermined number of rebels at Sitio Talamsi 1, Barangay Kalawakan, DRT around 3:10 yesterday morning.
Galera’s team was conducting security patrol on the mountainous part of Barangay Kalawakan when they chanced upon the communist insurgents led by a certain “Ka Mac-mac”, reportedly the commanding officer of the Sangay ng Partido sa Platun of the Communist Party of the Philippines –New Peoples’ Army (CPP-NPA) in Bulacan.
Fierce exchange of gunfire ensued that left Ka Mac-Mac and six other comrades dead.
Galera’s team recovered four M-16 rifles, two M-14 rifles, and one M-203 grenade launcher from the rebels along with subversive documents.
Senior Supt. Edgardo Tinio, the acting provincial police director of Bulacan, immediately dispatched teams of police officers to the fight scene as army troopers continued with their clearing operations.
The encounter came about four years after then 7th Infantry Division Commanding General Jovito Palparan claimed that he weakened the communist rebels in Central Luzon particularly in Bulacan by 95 percent after a year-long anti-insurgency campaign.
Palparan retired from the military in September 2006 and is now a representative of Bantay party list.
Before Palparan’s campaign, communist guerillas enjoyed a certain amount of influence in rural areas of Bulacan and were fingered as responsible for the death of at least 10 soldiers conducting humanitarian mission in an ambush in San Rafael town.
Months before that ambush, communist rebels engaged Bulacan police in a 13-hour running gun battle in from Angat to Pandi town in March 29, 2003 where at least four police officers were killed including a senior officer.
In the late 80s, communist guerillas in the coastal town of Hagonoy conducted a series of attacks on a Marine detachment in Barangay Sto. Rosario that resulted to casualties on both sides.
Aside from dead bodies, the encounter yielded subversive documents and high power fire arms.
Reports reaching the provincial police office at Camp General Alejo Santos here said that elements of the 56th Infantry Battalion led by 1Lt. Ian Lee Galera encountered an undetermined number of rebels at Sitio Talamsi 1, Barangay Kalawakan, DRT around 3:10 yesterday morning.
Galera’s team was conducting security patrol on the mountainous part of Barangay Kalawakan when they chanced upon the communist insurgents led by a certain “Ka Mac-mac”, reportedly the commanding officer of the Sangay ng Partido sa Platun of the Communist Party of the Philippines –New Peoples’ Army (CPP-NPA) in Bulacan.
Fierce exchange of gunfire ensued that left Ka Mac-Mac and six other comrades dead.
Galera’s team recovered four M-16 rifles, two M-14 rifles, and one M-203 grenade launcher from the rebels along with subversive documents.
Senior Supt. Edgardo Tinio, the acting provincial police director of Bulacan, immediately dispatched teams of police officers to the fight scene as army troopers continued with their clearing operations.
The encounter came about four years after then 7th Infantry Division Commanding General Jovito Palparan claimed that he weakened the communist rebels in Central Luzon particularly in Bulacan by 95 percent after a year-long anti-insurgency campaign.
Palparan retired from the military in September 2006 and is now a representative of Bantay party list.
Before Palparan’s campaign, communist guerillas enjoyed a certain amount of influence in rural areas of Bulacan and were fingered as responsible for the death of at least 10 soldiers conducting humanitarian mission in an ambush in San Rafael town.
Months before that ambush, communist rebels engaged Bulacan police in a 13-hour running gun battle in from Angat to Pandi town in March 29, 2003 where at least four police officers were killed including a senior officer.
In the late 80s, communist guerillas in the coastal town of Hagonoy conducted a series of attacks on a Marine detachment in Barangay Sto. Rosario that resulted to casualties on both sides.
