CAMP EVANGELISTA, Cagayan de Oro City, (PNA) –- A government trooper was killed in a clash with New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in the vicinity of a forest resort in Dahilayan, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, the military said on Monday.
Capt. Christian Uy, spokesperson of the army’s Public Affairs Division here, identified the lone fatality as Private First Class Rudy Lamesa, a member of the army’s 8th Infantry Batallion based in Bukidnon.
Uy said the government troopers were on patrol in upper Dahilayan at the foot of Mt. Kitanglad when they encountered five communist rebels that triggered a five- minute gunbattle Saturday afternoon.
He said that the pursuing government troops noticed blood stains along the NPA rebels withdrawal route which indicated that some communist guerrillas might have been wounded in the firefight.
Uy said that the military has mounted pursuit operations against the communist NPA rebels who swooped down the “Mega Farm,” a piggery farm in Sil-ipon, Libona Wednesday morning.
The rebels hacked 500 hogs, killed 50 pigs, and burned the stockyard before fleeing the scene, he said.
George Madlos, aka “Ka Oris,” the spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Mindanao, said on Friday that the attack was carried out by the NPA rebels to protest the low wages of farm workers.
Madlos warned that other companies in Mindanao who failed to extend benefits and fair wages to workers would also be subject of the NPA’s punitive action in the future.
Hong See, owner of the Mega Farm, said that the piggery employed residents, mostly members of the tribal communities, in the area.
He said that the farm has been in operation in Sil-ipon for more than 10 years. “It was the first time that the communist rebels attacked the piggery farm,” See said.
Uy said that the military has deployed troops to pursue the rebels in the hinterlands of Bukidnon since Thursday.
He said that the armed encounter last Saturday afternoon was the first since the military started the hot pursuit operations in the area after the rebels assaulted the Mega Farm.