Troops with their K9 dogs (left photo) track down a decomposing body of a member of the New People's Army covered with dried coconut leaves on a grassy area (right photo), on Wednesday (Aug. 1), in San Juan, Batangas. The slain body was found two days after the clash in Barangay Bulsa, San Juan, on Monday. (Photo courtesy of IIB, 2DPAO)
CAMP GEN. MATEO CAPINPIN, Tanay, Rizal -- Government troops on Wednesday recovered a decomposing body of a slain member of the New People's Army (NPA) following the clash in Sitio Coloconto, Barangay Bulsa in San Juan, Batangas.
Brig. Gen. Arnulfo Marcelo B. Burgos Jr., Commander of the 202nd (Unifier) Brigade, said the troops discovered the body while conducting pursuit and tracking operations against the communist terrorist group.
Burgos said K9 dogs helped the 1st Infantry Battalion track down the abandoned body of the NPA rebel.
Military personnel with K9 dogs, he said, followed the blood stains from the encounter site for two days, while troops with canines traced the body, which is already in a stage of decomposition, covered with dried coconut leaves on a grassy area.
He said the NPA rebel's body bore two fatal gunshot wounds in the chest and was dragged by rebel combatants about a kilometer away from the clash site.
The dead NPA rebel was later identified as alias “Jepoy”, a member of the Kilusang Larangang Gerilya Silangan (formerly known as Platoon Galaxy).
The troops transported the cadaver from the remote sitio of Sampaloc to the San Juan municipal police station for proper disposition while waiting for possible claimant.
Maj. Gen. Rhoderick M. Parayno, commander of the Army’s 2nd Infantry "Jungle Fighter" Division, condemned the NPA’s "negligence" of their dead comrade.
“The NPAs do not respect the life of their comrades. They should provide proper medication to those that are wounded. But the most unacceptable thing is to leave a comrade behind and conceal the body by covering it with dried leaves,” he said.
“We should respect the dead, and one way of doing it is by giving proper burial which the NPA did not,” he added.
Parayno reiterated that government troops "do not rejoice in killing our fellow Filipino,” urging the communist terrorist group to “give up your arms and join us in local peace talks.”
During the military's tracking operations, Army Capt. Patrick Jay M. Retumban, chief of the 2ID public affairs office, said additional weapons were recovered, which include improvised explosive devices (IEDs), blasting cap, hand grenade, assorted ammunition, MacBook laptop, cellphones and other subversive documents.
Retumban said the government troops have already processed previously retrieved items such as M-16 rifle, backpacks, bandoleers and IEDs after Monday’s gun battle.
He said security personnel are sustaining the massive pursuit operations against the terrorists to locate other wounded NPA rebels as reported by concerned civilians as the military also expanded their checkpoints in the area. (PNA)
