PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Aug. 12 -- Three suspected New People’s Army (NPA) insurgents have been arrested Friday afternoon following a morning firefight with the police that lasted nearly an hour in the northern Palawan town of Taytay.
One of the three is reportedly wounded, but Palawan Police Provincial Office (PPO) Director Gabriel Lopez did not confirm this to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an early Saturday morning call.
“Yes, three were arrested and they will be submitted for inquest here in Puerto Princesa. I will have to check about the wounded NPA,” Lopez said.
He added clearing operations are ongoing in the Alacalian area by a squad of policemen belonging to the Public Safety Company (PSC) of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB), and additional team sent by the Western Command (WESCOM) from the the Marine Battalion Landing Team 12 (MBLT-12).
“Clearing operations are still being conducted in the area as we speak,” Lopez said, adding PSC personnel are now conducting house-to-house search for the rest of more or less 20 NPA militants who participated in the confrontation.
Seized from the arrested NPA militants were a firearm with magazine; several backpacks, one of which has an improvised explosive device (IED); assorted communist-terrorist uniforms; a laptop; three cellular phones; and a generator set. The encounter with the NPA rebels in Alacalian happened Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.
No one was hurt among the members of the PSC. (Map photo sourced from Google Maps/PNA)
