NPAs wounded in misencounter
New People's Army (NPA) rebels mistook each other for the enemy and engaged in a firefight that wounded at least three of their fighters in Capiz yesterday.
Rebels under the Northern and Central Fronts sighted each other at around 8 am in Brgy. Buri in Tapaz town, and mistook each other for the enemy Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' 32nd Civil Relations Unit told The News Today yesterday. This resulted to a 10-minute firefight.
Witnesses told the military that they saw about three to five wounded rebels as a result of the misencounter, he said.
Marquez said that the NPA units were deployed to harass Balance Piston 09-1 joint training exercises in Camp Macario Peralta in Jamindan, Capiz.
“There was no coordination between the two NPA units, that is why they mistook each other for the enemy. There must be a problem with their communication,” Marquez said.
Last January 25, the Communist Party of the Philippines was reported to have ordered its fighters to mount offensives against the joint military exercises in Bicol region and Capiz.
Marquez said that the NPA dispatched two of its units operating in the provinces of Aklan and Capiz to harass Balance Piston 09-1 at Camp Macario Peralta in Jamindan, Capiz. One hundred forty one soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and 31 American specialists are involved in the 25-day joint training exercise, the second to be held in the Visayas.
One unit belonged to the Central Front under Francisco Balois alyas Ka Tonying, and the other from the Northern Front under a still unidentified leader.
NPA rebels are not familiar with their counterparts in the other provinces, that is why there was a misencounter, Marquez said.