ZAMBOANGA CITY, 29 October 2004 — A senior communist rebel was killed in a gunbattle with government troops in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte, officials said yesterday.
One soldier and another rebel were also killed in the fighting that erupted in Leon Postigo town when more than a dozen New People’s Army (NPA) rebels attacked a military outpost before sunrise Wednesday.
Col. Emmanuel Cayton, commander of the Philippine Army’s 102nd Brigade, identified the rebel leader as Marlo Bagundol, deputy regional secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and chief of the NPA in Western Mindanao.
The NPA is the armed wing of the CPP, which had been waging a guerrilla campaign since 1969 in a bid to overthrow the Manila-based government.
Cayton said troops found Bagundol with multiple gunshot wounds, and still gripping his weapon, as the attackers retreated after intense fighting.
Bagundol died in a hospital in Dipolog City, where soldiers took him for treatment.
Military officials said the group of Gabundol, also known as Commander Jolly, is the chief of the NPA forces in Western Mindanao, have been behind a string of attacks on government targets in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
The military had earlier placed all troops on “red alert” for possible rebel attacks across the country. Manila has opened peace talks with the rebels but guerrilla attacks have continued.
The peace talks were suspended in 2001 after the NPA assassinated two lawmakers.
