Cops identify two rebels slain in Ilog town clash

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Police revealed the identities of two of the four suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) who were killed in an encounter with the Philippine National Police (PNP)-6th Special Action Force Battalion (6SAB) at Barangay Tabu, Ilog, Negros Occidental last Tuesday.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Manongdo, 6SAB commander, said the two fatalities were Christian Vargas, an alleged platoon leader; and Joel Fundador, both of SouthWest Front (SWF)-Komiteng Rehiyon-Negros Cebu Bohol Siquijor (KR-NCBS).

Manongdo said Vargas passed away while being transported to a hospital that day. The two other fatalities have yet to be identified.

Aside from them, Nilda Bertulano, an alleged secretary of the Southwest Front, and another rebel were also wounded.

The 6SAB engaged in an intense firefight with the armed men believed to be NPAs when they chanced upon the group in the area.

Authorities recovered two M16 rifles, an AK47 rifle, other firearms, ammunition, and valuables.

Manongdo said that of the four individuals who were held for further investigation after they were suspected of having links with the NPA, only one of them was reportedly confirmed to have direct participation in the encounter.

The three others were already released from police custody.

Meanwhile, the NPA-South Central Negros Mount Cansermon Command (MCC-NPA) admitted to burning a P3.5-million backhoe at Sitio Bulod, Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City on September 11.

In a statement dated September 14, MCC-NPA spokesperson Ka Dionesio Magbuelas said the incident served as a reminder to the “ruling class” not to engage in destructive and harmful economic activities.

“What the elite calls ‘development projects’ are detrimental to the poor peasants and the ancestral domain of the Indigenous Peoples particularly in the mountain ranges and forest lands of Cambantog, Trukat, Tahod Ilajas and Cansermon in the boundary areas of Binalbagan town and Himamaylan City in Negros Occidental and La Libertad and Tayasan in Negros Oriental,” he said in a statement.

Magbuelas noted that the road construction of Himamaylan City-Negros Oriental Boundary along Tayasan Road is meant to pave the way for the entry of multinational mining companies and other big businesses that are eyeing some 1,100 hectares of Tribu Itoman-Maghat-Bukidnon lands in the hinterlands of Himamaylan City, which through the years have been threatened by development aggression.

“These economic projects will bring in huge profits for the multinational firms but it will displace the people and their livelihood and harm the environment,” he said.

He stressed that the revolutionary government does not tolerate destructive and harmful economic activities within its territory and is ever determined to penalize any anti-people project.