SIX New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed in a series of clashes with government troops in Bilar town in Bohol yesterday morning.
The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division said troops were deployed to Barangay Campagao in Bilar after they received reports from civilians about a group of rebels “forcibly asking for food and other supplies.”
Fighting between troops from the Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion and the rebels, who are said to be remnants of the Bohol provincial party committee, started in the barangay at 7:35 a.m.
The military said six successive clashes occurred between the two sides in a span of three hours.
Soldiers recovered seven high-powered firearms after the clashes.
Maj. Gen. Marion Sison, 3rd ID commander, attributed the feat to the support and vigilance of the populace by providing timely information on the whereabouts of the insurgents.
Sison said the death of the six rebels was a big blow to the rebels operating in Bohol.
“We will not stop until they will succumb to defeat or until every one of them abandons their futile armed struggle,” said Sison.
He urged the rebels in Western Visayas (Region 6) and Central Visayas (Region 7) to surrender so they would not end up dead like their six comrades who died in yesterday’s clash.
“As such, (I) am again calling the remaining CNTs (CPP-NPA terrorists) in Regions 6 and 7 to return to the folds of the law or you will suffer the same fate as your comrades in Bohol,” said Sison.
