Soldier, militiaman killed in separate attacks in central Mindanao

KIDAPAWAN CITY - An Army sergeant and a militiaman were killed in separate incidents in central Mindanao on Tuesday.Sgt.Zaldy Caliman, his wife and 11-year-old son were on their way to Guindulungan town in Maguindanao riding a motorcycle together when they were attacked by suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters while motoring through a secluded stretch of the Maguindanao-Sultan Kudarat Highway.Police investigators said two BIFF gunmen on a motorcycle trailing behind flagged them down as they got close and shot Caliman with .45 caliber pistols.Caliman, who belonged to the Army’s 57thInfantry Battalion, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds. It seems the attack was a `liquidation mission’ because only the off-duty Sgt. Caliman was targeted, said Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police office.Caliman had asked for a two-day break from his superiors in their battalion headquarters in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao to visit his farm in Guindulungan in southwest of the province.More than a dozen off-duty soldiers were killed one attack after another in central Mindanao by motorcycle-riding BIFF gunmen in the past 24 months.The fatal ambush of Caliman occurred after communist rebels shot dead in an encounter early Tuesday in Barangay Basak in Magpet, North Cotabato a militiaman named Eliseo Sicao.Sicao, a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, and his companions were ambushed by New People’s Army guerillas while on their way to Sitio Buay-Buay in Barangay Basak to verify the reported presence there of rebels collecting protection money from villagers.Although outnumbered, the CAFGUs returned fire, wounding four NPAs in the ensuing crossfire.The NPAs scampered away when they sensed that responding personnel of the Army’s 39thInfantry Battalion were closing in.Witnesses said the rebels carried four wounded companions, two of them identified as Romeo and Warlito, was they fled to a nearby hinterland northeast of Barangay Basak.