CAFGU killed in clash against NPA

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Communist rebels gunned down a militiaman as they tried to take over a paramilitary detachment in North Cotabato’s Tulunan town Thursday.

Soldiers and members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit guarding the detachment in Barangay Tuburan, Makilala which New People’s Army guerillas attacked managed to return fire and prevent them from closing in.

A CAFGU member named Relex Endencio was killed in the ensuing firefight, which waned only when the NPAs retreated to another barangay after they failed to breach the three parallel lines of bamboo fences encircling the detachment.

Col. Ademar Tomaro, commanding officer of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, said the attack could be in retaliation for the heavy loses the NPAs incurred in a series of encounters with soldiers the past three weeks in nearby Magpet town, also in North Cotabato.

Civilians displaced by the Army-NPA hostilities in Magpet confirmed that more than 20 rebels were killed in the encounters, which waned only last week following the liberation of 15 guerilla enclaves in the area from enemy occupation.

The anti-NPA operations in Magpet by the 602nd Brigade and its component units, the 57th, the 40th and 7th Infantry Battalions and combatants of the Army’s elite Scout Rangers and Special Forces were launched on the demand of farmers complaining about excessive taxation activities of rebels.

Rebels have also been harassing villagers they suspect of sympathizing with the military, or are reluctant to shell out “protection money” on a regular basis.

Tomaro said the remains of the slain militiaman have been turned over to his family in Tulunan, North Cotabato.