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A 12-year-old rebel fighter was killed when
government troops clashed with a band of communist rebels in a
village in Compostela Valley last Friday, the military reported on
Sunday.
Army reports identified the young
rebel as a grade-two pupil from Simsimin Elementary School.
A soldier, Pfc. Ruben Bracera of
the 67th Infantry Battalion based in Compostela Valley, was also
killed in the encounter.
The military said the death of
the young rebel reinforces its claim that the New People’s Army
continues to recruit children to fight its battles.
Capt. Jose Francis de la Fuente,
information officer of the 8th Infantry Division, said the clash
took place Friday morning in Sitio Simsimin, Barangay Kahayag, in
New Bataan town.
Reports said a platoon from the
67th IB, under 2nd Lt. Francis John Gabawa, was on patrol when it
chanced upon the rebel group.
The reports said the soldiers
fired at NPA positions near a creek from where heavy fire had hit
Bracera and where the young rebel was seen earlier with an M-16
rifle.
The body of the rebel was brought
to the New Bataan Police Station for disposition and documentation
before being claimed by his father. Troops recovered four M-16 and
two M-14 rifles in the area of the fighting, while another M-14
rifle, a homemade shotgun and rebel belongings were recovered by
soldiers pursuit the rest of the NPA group.
The 7,400-strong NPA is the armed
wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging
nearly four decades of war against the government.
 --Anthony
Vargas
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