5 NPAs die in clash with Army in Bukidnon

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -– Five rebels of the New People’s Army (NPA) were killed as fresh fighting erupted anew in the hinterlands of Bukidnon Wednesday, the military reported Thursday.The Philippines News Agency (PNA) quotedLt. Col. Jessie Alvarez, the commanding officer of the Army’s 403rd Brigade based in Bukidnon, as sayingthat the armed skirmishes took place in the mountains of Pangantucan.In a report monitored from here, Alvarez said that two government troopers suffered slight wounds in an hour firefight that started about 6 p.m. Wednesday.He said that the pursuing army troopers recovered the unidentified bodies along the withdrawal routes of the communist rebels.Alvarez said that the military brought the bodies to the funeral homes in Valencia City, about 50 kilometers southeast of the municipal town of Pangantucan.He said that the intelligence community has monitored unidentified persons buying large quantities of medical supplies in the local pharmacy.Alvarez said that the military has suspected that the medical supplies were intended for some wounded persons that resulted in a series of armed skirmishes with the NPA rebels in Bukidnon in the past weeks. Our men surreptitiously monitored and followed the buyers of medical supplies who delivered the supplies to a group of fully armed rebels in the mountains of Pangantucan,” Alvarez said.Aside from recovering the bodies, the military also recovered AK 47, handheld radios, backpacks, and other subversive materials of high intelligence value along the withdrawal route of the communist rebels, Alvarez said.