By Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA
BACOLOD CITY — A policeman was injured when his rifle malfunctioned during an encounter with New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental early morning on Friday.
Police Officer 3 Shaun Francis Nelmida, personnel of the 605th Mobile Company of the police’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 (Western Visayas), sustained wounds from a minor blast in his firearm and was brought to a hospital in Bacolod.
A report from the Philippine Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade said the police forces conducted a combat patrol in Sitio Kalipas, Barangay Igmaya-an after they were informed of rebel sightings in the area.
At about 1 a.m., the government troops encountered about three rebels in an area believed to be an enemy outpost. The firefight lasted for about five minutes.
In another development, five suspected members of a private armed group in Don Salvador Benedicto were arrested by operatives of the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and personnel of the municipal police station.
The suspects, identified as members of the Bacordo Group, have standing arrest warrants for murder.
A police report showed that Julito Tanoco, Bernie Bantilan, Joel Condes, Antonio Baluran, and Armando Remotigue were all arrested during the operations last Monday.
Based on the investigation of CIDG-Bacolod, the five suspects were involved in the death of Charlie Boliboli, then leader of the breakaway Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, in July 2017.
Subsequently, the NPA’s Roselyn Pelle Command admitted in a statement that they were behind the killing of Boliboli.