Minors engage govt troops in clash with NPA groups

Camp Crame has received reports that government troops arrested three minors during an encounter with the communist rebels in Catanduanes province on Tuesday morning.

The New People’s Army (NPA) has consistently denied using minors in their combat exercise against the state.

Police operatives from Region V refused to disclose the identity of the three arrested minors, but said the children, armed with high-powered guns, were with the two groups of NPA when members of the Philippine Army encountered them at around 8 a.m. in Barangay Sabloyon, Cara-moran, Catanduanes.

The presence of the three minors prompted authorities to hold their fire. However, when they approached the children to question them, another group of rebels believed to be their comrades attacked the authorities.

Backed by two helicopters, government troops managed to overpower the rebels who managed to escape nonetheless into the deeper parts of the forests.

Reports also revealed that the 20 rebels in the encounter are being headed by a certain Ka Tabs.

Authorities are now making an accounting of the casualties on the enemy side after they recovered from the crime scene M14 and M16 rifles left by the fleeing rebels.

In a related development in the southern Philippines, communist insurgents shot dead three brothers for being military agents, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

The three brothers, ages 20, 22 and 29, were found shot dead with their hands and feet bound on the outskirts of Davao city on Monday, said Supt. Antonio Rivera.

“During the investigation, the military admitted that they utilized the three brothers as their agents or assets,” Rivera told reporters.

The mother of the three murdered men, members of a family named Tulang, also confirmed that she had warned her sons not to get involved in military operations against the NPA, said Rivera.
No details were given on the type of work the men did for the military or their normal professions.

The military said last month that the communist insurgency had claimed more than 3,000 lives over the past eight years. It estimates there are currently about 3,000 communist soldiers. The latest efforts to revive peace talks broke down last month after the rebels demanded the release of their captured comrades.

Peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines have been suspended since 2005, when the government refused to ask the European Union and the United States to remove the two groups from their foreign terrorist watchlists.–Sammy Martin, Reporter, Manila Times with report from AFP