BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Combined Army and National Police combat troops clashed early morning today with remnants of a defunct rebel front founded by then Negros top Communist Frank Fernandez in a mountain village in Moises Padilla once known as a town infested with Communist guerrillas.
Town police chief, Major Joevito Bose, confirmed the body of a man around 20 to 30 years old was found at the clash site around 6am, less than an hour after the firefight erupted around 5:35am between troopers of the 2nd Negros Occidental Provincial Mobile Force Company and the 62nd Infantry Battalion.
This is the first reported clash in the province after Negros Occidental was placed under the Stable Internal Peace and Security or SIPS status with the dismantling of
The firefight around 5:30am today, 4 April 2024, was between a combined unit of the 62nd Infantry Battalion and the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company of the Provincial Police Office in Quintin Remo, once reported as part of a mobility corridor of the dismantled Central Negros Front 1 and the locus of a guerrilla zone.
Town police chief, Major Joevito Bose told DNX they received initial reports this morning that there was a fatality during the clash but could not immediately confirm it.
Third Infantry Division spokesman Lieutenant Colonel J-Jay Javines, however, said he was certain that no government trooper was killed or wounded in the firefight bit hinted at possible rebel casualties or fatalities.
