Duterte awards merit medal to soldier killed in clash with NPA
February 12, 2017 | 5:47pm
President Rodrigo Duterte, accompanied by 6th Infantry Division commander Brigadier General Arnel dela Vega, walks past the honor guards upon his arrival at the 6th Infantry Division headquarters in Camp Siongco, Maguindanao on Jan. 27, 2017.
Karl Norman Alonzo / Presidential Photo
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte awarded a military merit medal to a soldier who was killed in a clash with New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas in Agusan del Norte Sunday.
Duterte went to the wake of Sgt. Marlon Balais in Butuan City after visiting the survivors of the magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Surigao City.
The president posthumously awarded the military merit medal with bronze anahaw leaf to Balais in recognition of the “meritorious services” he rendered to the nation.
A scout leader of the 29th Infantry Battalion, Balais and two others were killed in an encounter between Army troopers and NPA members in Sitio Sarug, Barangay San Isidro Sunday morning.
Also killed during the three-minute firefight were Jerson Beto, a grade 11 student; and a small scale miner identified as Pepito Tiambong.
The encounter happened a week after Duterte terminated the peace talks with the communist rebels and labeled them as a terrorist group. The president decided to scrap the peace negotiations after the communists insisted on their demand to free more than 400 rebel leaders whom they claim to be political prisoners.
Duterte rejected the demand, which he described as tantamount to granting amnesty. Communist rebels then called off the unilateral ceasefire and stepped up attacks against government forces in various parts of the country.
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