Google map of Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat
COTABATO CITY – Soldiers discovered the body of a third combatant of the New People’s Army (NPA) in an abandoned lair in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat on Thursday afternoon, the Army here reported.
“Found beside the cadaver were two improvised explosive devices,” Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s Infantry Division, said in a statement on Friday.
The latest discovery came a day after two dead NPA guerillas were also found in an advanced state of decomposition in a bigger lair in the same remote village of Namat Masla in the municipality.
On Wednesday, government troops engaged the rebels in a 45-minute gun battle in Namat Masla after villagers reported their presence in the area.
“Our troops are still clearing the village that is being terrorized by the NPA (rebels),” Uy said.
He said operating troops of the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion have found more than a dozen satellite lairs at the Lumotan mountain range in Barangay Namat Masla at the border of the villages of Datu Wasay and Sangay in adjacent Kalamansig town.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
