3 NPAs, soldier killed in Sultan Kudarat clash

COTABATO CITY —Three members of the New People’s Army and a soldier from the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion were killed in a gunfight in Barangay Datu Ito Andong, Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, before dawn on Thursday, June 19.

Leaders of indigenous groups and local executives in Kalamansig told reporters on Friday, June 20, that the hostilities erupted when the NPAs opened fire on a team from the 37th Infantry Battalion, which had been dispatched to investigate reports of their presence in a secluded area of Barangay Datu Ito Andong, where they were allegedly collecting rice and money from villagers at gunpoint.

Local officials, including members of the multi-sectoral Kalamansig Municipal Peace and Order Council, said two of the rebels killed in the encounter, Brix Alison and Tomas Sales, are ranking officials of the NPA’s self-styled Sub-Regional Committee-Daguma Area and the Regional Sentro de Gravidad. These leaders, including Alison and Sales, are wanted for high-profile criminal cases pending in various courts across Central Mindanao.

The third fatality, Myca Bunsing, is an NPA platoon medic, according to leaders of the indigenous tribes in Barangay Datu Ito Andong and nearby tribal enclaves in Kalamansig.

Lt. Col. Christopherson Capuyan, commanding officer of the 37th IB, said one of his subordinates also died from bullet wounds he sustained as they traded shots with the NPAs in a hinterland area in Barangay Datu Ito Andong.

Capuyan’s immediate superior, Brig. Gen. Michael Santos of the 603rd Infantry Brigade and the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Major Donald Gumiran, had separately said that soldiers found four M16 assault rifles and improvised explosive devices beside the cadavers of the three NPAs.

Santos and Gumiran both expressed gratitude to the residents of Kalamansig, local officials and the traditional leaders of the Moro and non-Moro indigenous communities in the municipality for assisting units of the 603rd Infantry Brigade in monitoring the movements of the few remaining members of the now significantly weakened NPA within their domains.