DAVAO CITY – A soldier and three other Army men fell as casualties in a recent attack of the New People’s Army in Bukidnon on Sunday afternoon.
The NPA also said they seized high-powered firearms in an attack in Sitio Mahayag, Barangay Namnam, San Fernando, Bukidnon at around 3:30pm.
Allan Juanito, spokesperson of the NPA North Central Mindanao Regional Command said they seized a Minimi machine gun, five M-14 rifle, three M-16s, an M203 grenade launcher, two .45 caliber pistols and a .38 revolver from the Army who were “occupying the sitio (village) hall as their barracks.”
“Since the last few months of last year, these troops in Namnam have been part of 68th IB troops deployed in four barrios of San Fernando to guard the construction equipment of a company contracted to work on the Valencia-Davao highway,” Juanito said.
Meanwhile, the NPA said a 12-year old child was killed during the incident.
Juanito said they are trying to contact the family to provide assistance.
“We regret this [unintentional] death and we shall exhaust all effort to contact the family of the child and extend to them proper assistance for the burial of the child as well as indemnification,” said Juanito.
Juanito said they remind the residents to “assert that soldiers must not camp in or near their domiciles in accordance to the rules of conflict.”
“In doing so, unfortunate incidents of civilian deaths will be avoided in the future,” said Juanito. (davaotoday.com)
