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BY IAN PAUL CORDERO
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
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ILOILO – Six soldiers were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in Barangay Pangilihan, Janiuay town, the Philippine Army said.
A 15-minute exchange of gunfire ensued thereafter in what the military believed as an ambush staged by the New People’s Army (NPA).
The explosion occurred while the troops on board military vehicles were on their way to the town proper from Barangay Panuran, said Captain Eduardo Precioso Jr., 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) spokesperson.
One of those injured in the blast was Corporal Ronald Peligro, a 34-year-old native of Bohol province.
He was taken to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City for the treatment of his lacerations on the eyes, forehead and left arm caused by IED shrapnel.
The following sustained “minor bruises,” the Army said:
- Private First Class Joebert Porras, 26, of Barangay Lonoy, Calinog, Iloilo
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Private First Class Ariel Ea, 24, of President Aquino, Sultan Kudarat
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Corporal Reymulondo Villa, 36, of Mambusao, Capiz
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Private Peter Calugas, 24, of Barangay Tagsing, Leon, Iloilo
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Sergeant William Viado Jr., 39, of Midsayap, North Cotabato
They were treated at the Federico Roman Tirador Sr. Memorial District Hospital in Janiuay as outpatients, the military said.
All six wounded soldiers were members of the 61st Infantry Battalion (61IB) of the 3ID.
They just left Barangay Panuran where they held a “Community Support Program” when the explosion happened at around 10:45 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, the Army said.
A firefight ensued after the blast, a spot report from the Iloilo Police Provincial Office stated. The 3ID confirmed this.
Lieutenant Colonel Sisenando Magbalot Jr., 61IB commanding officer, said in a Philippine News Agency report the troops encountered three to five suspected NPA rebels, who fled after the explosion and when the soldiers fired at them.
Magbalot said the soldiers were about 3 meters away from the area where the IED was planted. No civilian was hurt, he added.
Scene of the crime operatives from the Police Regional Office 6 headed to the blast site at around 8 a.m. yesterday.
Their commander, Chief Inspector Hilarion Roga, said that they were unable to recover any empty shell and that the site had been “contaminated” by the locals that flocked there.
But the police investigators found electrical wires and plastic pipe fragments that they believe were used in the IED. They also took soil samples.
As of this writing, Roga said they “cannot tell” if this was a work of the NPA but were labeling it as a work of “lawless elements.”
But the 3ID already condemned the NPA for its “use of landmines,” in violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
“The inhumane act of the [NPA] demonstrates that they are anti-development and anti-social,” the 3ID said in a statement.
In a statement, the NPA claimed responsibility for the ambush.
A unit of the rebel group under the Jose Percival Estocada Command used a “command-detonated explosive,” Ka Julio Montana, spokesperson for the Chiva “Waling-Waling” Command of NPA-Panay, said in the statement.
The rebels accused the 61IB soldiers of conducting a weeks-long “combat operation” that “sowed extreme fear and worry among farmers” in the hinterlands of Janiuay./PN
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