LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 25 (PNA) - Government forces killed nine rebels in separate fierce engagements with a band of New People's Army (NPA) in villages in the provinces of Albay and Sorsogon, the Philippine Army (PA) said Friday morning.
One of the fierce firefights occurred in the town of Pilar in Sorsogon, where eight NPA rebels died while the other one was in Manito, Albay where one rebel was killed.
Maj. Gen. Ruperto Pabustan, commanding general of the 9th Army Infantry Division, said the Army soldiers of the 901st and 902nd Brigades based in Albay and Sorsogon were on simultaneous combat operations on Friday when they encountered the band of NPA rebels.
Pabustan, quoting reports from Col. Mario Mendoza, Brigade commander in Sorsogon, said the eight slain rebels were brought to the Pilar town hall for identification purposes.
The report said the incident took place at Sitio Lipason, Barangay Mabanate, a village near Pilar town proper around 7:30 a.m. Friday when a 20-man NPA group engaged an Army patrol team in a running firefight that led to the death of the eight rebels.
Soldiers recovered from the scene eight assault firearms composed of M14 and M16 rifles used by the slain rebels.
Reinforcing soldiers from the 49th Infantry Battalion and a helicopter gunship scoured possible sites where the rebels may have hidden.
Villagers particularly the pupils at the Kalungay Elementary School of said village scampered to safety upon hearing the gunfire and explosions from grenade launchers from the nearby battle scene.
In Manito, Albay, an NPA rebel identified only as Segundino Bongcay alias "Papay" was killed in an engagement with Army Scout Rangers at Sitio Bonga, Barangay Pawa around 6 a.m. Friday.
Capt. Razaleigh Bansawan said the slain rebel was among the seven-man NPA band reported by residents as extorting money from them.
Bansawan said responding Army Scout Rangers engaged the communist guerillas in a brief gunbattle which led to the killing of one rebel.
The rebels, according to the military intelligence, are members of the Guerrilla Front Committee 78 under Jerry Abache alias Josam operating in the second district of Albay.
Pabustan said the series of offensives launched by the Army against the communist movement in Bikol shows the determination of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to crush the remaining communist fronts in the region by 2010.
The AFP has placed Bikol among the top national priority areas where internal security operations would be heightened against the NPA rebels.
Pabustan said Bikol, Davao in Mindanao and Negros in the Visayas are among the top three regions placed under the national priority areas to initiate an aggressive Internal Security Operation against the rebels.
The Bicol Regional Party Committee (BRPC) of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) with its armed component, the NPA, is led by Mario de la Cruz alias Ka Molong with 500 armed regulars operating in the six provinces of Bikol.
"Although we have dismantled several GFs in the provinces of Sorsogon, Camarines Sur the Armed Forces of the Philippines is bent on bringing down the remaining communist fronts," Pabustan said.
The top Army official in Bikol said the offensive would put insurgency at "inconsequential" level. (PNA)