Suspected NPA member killed

COTABATO CITY — Government troops killed a member of the New People’s Army (NPA) who belonged to a group notorious for extorting money from hapless farmers in a brief clash in an upland area in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat province on Thursday, according to local authorities.

The NPA member had been wanted for high-profile criminal cases pending in different courts in Central Mindanao, members of the multi-sector Palimbang Municipal Peace and Order Council told reporters on Sunday.

Brigadier General Michael A. Santos, commander of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade, said the casualty and his companions opened fire first as state troops approaching their hideout in Sitio Sandawagen in the village of Bambanen in Palimbang, sparking a gunfight that led to his death.

His companion escaped toward a nearby hinterland after the soldiers sent to check their reported presence in the area killed him with rifle shots. — John Felix M. Unson