- GILBERT BAYORAN
Two more combatants of the New People’s Army were reported Wednesday by the Philippine Army to have died in another encounter with soldiers in Sitio Makilo, Brgy. Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
The Communist Party of the Philippines immediately issued a statement that Ericson Acosta, a consultant of the National Democratic Front, did not die in the encounter as claimed by the Philippine Army, but was captured and killed.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, however, said that they are still in the process of identifying the two slain rebels, despite the identification that Acosta was one of the casualties.
Based on information they got, Pasaporte said Acosta was the husband of Kerima Lorema Tariman, secretary of the dismantled Northern Negros Front, who also died in an encounter with the 79th Infantry Battalion in August last year in Silay City.
He, however, did not confirm that Acosta was among the two rebel fatalities in the Kabankalan encounter.
Pasaporte said that Acosta and Tariman were dispatched by the CPP central committee in Negros Island to help recover the lost territories of the communist terrorist organization and to consolidate their remaining forces.
In a statement, the 303rd Infantry Brigade said that the joint combat operation of the 94th and 47th Infantry Battalions led to two encounters, which started at about 2:10 a.m. Wednesday, after government troopers responded to reports on the presence of armed rebels in the area.
The first encounter lasted for about five minutes, before the rebels scampered to various directions.
Pursuit operations led to another encounter, about 100 meters away from the first site, which resulted in the killing of two suspected NPA rebels, Pasaporte said.
Aside from the cadavers of the two rebels, who were left behind by their fleeing comrades, Army soldiers also recovered a KG 9 automatic pistol with a magazine containing ammunition, two caliber 45 pistols, two fragmentation grenades, a CPP-NPA flag, and subversive documents.
Two days earlier, two NPA rebels also died in an encounter with the 62nd IB troopers in Brgy. Quintin Remo, Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental.
In a statement, the CPP said that Ka Ericson was in Negros, especially in Kabankalan City, to consult on the situation of farm workers in southern Negros, and to share developments regarding the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER).
It added that Ka Ericson was among the NDF consultants working on CASER./GB
