BONGABON, Nueva Ecija – Elements of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion engaged a band of suspected New People’s Army in another armed battle, the second in two weeks, in a mountainous area in nearby village of Diaat, Maria Aurora, Aurora on Monday.
This as Major Gen. Ralph Villanueva, commander of the Fort Ramon Magsaysay-based 7th Infantry Division, belied reports that three soldiers were killed in a separate Aurora encounter.
Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano, 71st IB head, said the soldiers were conducting a security patrol operation in the village when they chanced-upon the suspected communist guerillas under a certain alias Otoy/Gani.
“There were no reported casualties on the government forces while the casualty on the enemy side cannot be ascertained as troops are on hot pursuit operations,” Feliciano said.
In his report to the 702nd Infantry Brigade commander, Col. Felicito Trinidad, Feliciano said that prior to the encounter, the military received information from “concerned citizens” about the “presence of armed group in the area.”
Meanwhile, Trinidad said the recent encounter is the second since August 16 when Army men and rebels clashed in Sitio Upper Diayo, Barangay Galintuja, also in Maria Aurora, Aurora.
He said two rebel camps were captured while four high powered firearms, including one Browning Automatic rifle, one M16 and two M14 rifles, were recovered. Also recovered, the military said, were four improvised anti-personnel landmines, 156 rounds of bullets and a two-way radio receiver.
“Our constant efforts of reaching out to the people in the far-flung barangays proved instrumental in the said armed engagements,” Trinidad stressed.
Villanueva, on the other hand, belittled as a mere propaganda the claims that three soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in an Army-NPA encounter in an unspecified date in Barangay Galintuja, Maria Aurora, Aurora.
It can be recalled that firefights between the government troopers and the NPA forces intensified in the tri-boundaries of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Aurora in the months of 2009. The military claimed success in the operations resulted to deaths from both camps.
“The public deserves to know the correct information,” Villanueva said, saying no soldier was killed during the first clash this month in Maria Aurora.
This as Major Gen. Ralph Villanueva, commander of the Fort Ramon Magsaysay-based 7th Infantry Division, belied reports that three soldiers were killed in a separate Aurora encounter.
Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano, 71st IB head, said the soldiers were conducting a security patrol operation in the village when they chanced-upon the suspected communist guerillas under a certain alias Otoy/Gani.
“There were no reported casualties on the government forces while the casualty on the enemy side cannot be ascertained as troops are on hot pursuit operations,” Feliciano said.
In his report to the 702nd Infantry Brigade commander, Col. Felicito Trinidad, Feliciano said that prior to the encounter, the military received information from “concerned citizens” about the “presence of armed group in the area.”
Meanwhile, Trinidad said the recent encounter is the second since August 16 when Army men and rebels clashed in Sitio Upper Diayo, Barangay Galintuja, also in Maria Aurora, Aurora.
He said two rebel camps were captured while four high powered firearms, including one Browning Automatic rifle, one M16 and two M14 rifles, were recovered. Also recovered, the military said, were four improvised anti-personnel landmines, 156 rounds of bullets and a two-way radio receiver.
“Our constant efforts of reaching out to the people in the far-flung barangays proved instrumental in the said armed engagements,” Trinidad stressed.
Villanueva, on the other hand, belittled as a mere propaganda the claims that three soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in an Army-NPA encounter in an unspecified date in Barangay Galintuja, Maria Aurora, Aurora.
It can be recalled that firefights between the government troopers and the NPA forces intensified in the tri-boundaries of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Aurora in the months of 2009. The military claimed success in the operations resulted to deaths from both camps.
“The public deserves to know the correct information,” Villanueva said, saying no soldier was killed during the first clash this month in Maria Aurora.
