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Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Bry. councilor’s son killed by Army men
By Allan I. Varquez/Rene H. Martel
MEMBERS of an Army battalion were patrolling a sitio in Carmen, Cebu yesterday afternoon when about 30 rebels allegedly fired at them. This set off a 20-minute firefight that killed a son of a barangay councilor.
The Strike Force Team of Alpha Company of the 78th Infantry Battalion (IB) was checking out reports from residents of Barangay Ipil in the northern town about the frequent presence of armed rebels in the area.
Ipil Barangay Councilor Godo-fredo Batiquin identified the fatality as his son Noel who, he said, was tilling their farm lot when caught in the crossfire. He said Noel, who was in his 30s, was not a rebel.
Sgt. Edwin Dacara, a member of the 27-man team, was hit in the stomach and is currently treated at the Central Command hospital in Cebu City.
Some rebels were also believed to have been wounded because of bloodstains found at the scene.
Yesterday’s clash was the first for this year and fifth since August last year in Cebu Province.
The last time government troops and rebel forces had a firefight was in a detachment in Sitio Caurasan, Barangay Siotes, also in Carmen town last Dec. 13. Four soldiers were killed and one was wounded.
Siotes is a hinterland barangay about 20 kilometers from the Poblacion at the boundary of Carmen and Tuburan town.
Ipil is about six kilometers away. The encounter yesterday prompted Insp. Danilo Delantar, Carmen police chief, to require all his men to report for work without a day off.
Major Acelo Medija of the 78th IB said in a phone interview that they sent the team of Lt. Allan Margarata from a detachment in Barangay Dungoan, Danao City to verify reports from Ipil residents about suspected armed rebels in their place.
He said the team from Danao was sent and not the soldiers from their main headquarters in Sogod town because the city is nearer to Carmen.
The gunfight, Medija said, took place in a forested area of Sitio Magalo at 3:20 p.m., giving the soldiers “absolute convenience” to fire back without fear of hitting civilians because the houses were some distance.
But a son of local official apparently took a bullet during the gunfight.
“We got scared when we heard the gunshots. Later, my neighbors arrived to inform me that my son was hit,” Batiquin said in Cebuano during an interview with radio dyLA.
Batiquin denied that his son was a rebel, saying Noel did not even venture far from home and had not been going out with strangers.
He said his son only had a bolo for tilling soil when he left their home to bring their carabao to their farmland.
The soldiers claimed to have recovered from Noel’s possession two combat backpacks, which were owned by two of the four Army soldiers killed in the attack in Caurasan, last year, and an M-16 rifle.
Noel’s body was taken to the Dungoan military detachment for identification by witnesses in the Dec. 13 attack by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Medija said the rebels were likely going to recruit more supporters and were not planning an attack because Ipil is far from police headquarters and military detachments.
Cpt. Fernando Aguilar, head of the Civil Military Operations of the 78th IB, said the group of Lt. Margarata saw Noel armed with an M-16 when the gunfight ensued.
Also recovered at the encounter site were seven other combat backpacks, subversive documents and bloodstains.
Last October 11, one soldier was also wounded when government troops responding to a rebel group sighting in Barangay Bali-ang, Danao City were fired upon by suspected rebels.
According to the military, the rebels allegedly used a child as a shield in their retreat and later released the boy.
Last Aug. 27, around 2:15 p.m. in Sitio Santican, Barangay Ginabucan, Cat-mon town, soldiers and rebels traded bullets for about 15 minutes, leading to the capture of four suspected rebels.
The incident came barely a week after a band of rebels ambushed a police team in nearby Sogod town, where two policemen and a hitchhiker were seriously injured.
(July 1, 2003 issue)
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