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THE military has lost one of its men while conducting
a community service project in a depressed community of Manila’s
Tondo district late Saturday afternoon, military reports said
Sunday.
The Army spokesman, Lt. Col.
Ernesto Torres Jr., said that Army Staff Sgt. Rowell Papa-an was one
of the 270 soldiers deployed in Metro Manila for community projects.
Papa-an has responded to a
robbery when he was shot by a suspected robber on Road 10 of Del Pan
Area, one of the known depressed communities in Manila, said Torres.
Capt. Eugene Julio Osias, group
commander for Metro Manila of the AFP’s Civil Relation Service
(CRS), said Papa-an was arresting a suspected robber when the
suspect’s accomplice shot him.
Both suspects escape after the
shooting while Papa-an was taken by his fellow soldiers at the Gat
Andres Bonifacio Memorial Hospital where he was declared dead on
arrival.
The incident is now being handled
and investigated by the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The military, since November last
year, has deployed 27 teams of ten soldiers in poor communities in
the metropolis as part of its novel approach against insurgency.
However, the deployment did not
sit-well with left-wing militant organization who accused the
soldiers of harassing their supporters and campaigning against them.
 --Anthony
Vargas
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