THREE suspected members of the communist terrorist group New People’s Army (NPA) were killed in an encounter in Masbate on Monday morning, a military official said.
Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) spokesman Colonel Dennis Cana said forces from the 2nd Infantry Battalion and the 1st Masbate Police Mobile Force Company clashed with the rebels while conducting law enforcement support operations in Barangay Alas in Mandaon.
The encounter lasted for 15 minutes. Three rebels were killed while there were no casualties among the troops.
Seized in the area were several firearms and subversive documents.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said a total of 5,164 NPA members and supporters have been neutralized since January.
Of the number, 169 were killed in focused military operations, 218 were apprehended, and 4,777 have surrendered.
Among the high-value targets who were neutralized or arrested were Mitchel Fat, Sarvina Rivas Quijano, Joel Sibalo Banganan, Ranny Velle Urbis and Mario Caraig.
Fat, who was tagged as the mastermind in the killing of four policemen in Ayungon, Negros Oriental in July 2019, was killed after allegedly resisting arrest in August.
Quijano, a finance staff of the NPA in northeastern Mindanao, was arrested in a checkpoint in Surigao del Sur. Authorities seized from her two improvised explosive devices (IED) and other IED paraphernalia.
Ranking NPA leaders Banganan and Velle, who operate in Abra and Ilocos Sur, were arrested on August 14 in Barangay Damacuag, Santa Lucia, Ilocos Sur.
Caraig, an NPA leader operating in the Southern Tagalog region, was killed by AFP-PNP forces in Kalayaan, Laguna on August 7.
Aside from the neutralization of high-value targets, the AFP and the PNP also said they have dismantled eight guerilla fronts and rendered them incapable of staging attacks, recruiting new members, and generating funds.
Three of the dismantled terrorist cells were from Luzon, two were from Visayas, and three were from Mindanao.
On Wednesday, the AFP and the PNP concluded the National Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Center meeting and signed the new guidelines for the strengthening of the campaign against insurgency and terrorism.
AFP Chief of Staff Gilbert Gapay assured continuous support to the Task Force Balik Loob, which aims to entice more rebels to return to society with the promised livelihood assistance through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-Clip) of the government.
The AFP said 4700 former rebels have benefited from the E-Clip as of August 31, 2020 while 3,742 have graduated from various training programs offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and 2,105 have benefitted from the integrated livelihood program offered by the Department of Labor and Employment. (SunStar Philippines)