NPA ambushes gov’t troops; 5 soldiers go ‘MIA’ 05/31/2010

NPA ambushes gov’t troops; 5 soldiers go ‘MIA’

05/31/2010 Five Army troops, including a lieutenant, went missing while three other soldiers were wounded after heavily armed communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels ambushed government forces in Camarines Sur province at dawn yesterday. Army 9th Infantry Division (ID) spokesman Major Harold Cabunoc identified the missing soldiers as 1Lt. Miguel Logronio Jr., Cpl. Arturo Hernandez and Privates First Class Albert Jamera and Pfc. Edwin Britanico, all members of the 42nd Infantry Battalion. As of press time, the military has yet to know what befell these four soldiers. Cabunoc said a fifth soldier who went “missing in action” (MIA) – Pfc. Bernard Vergara, also of 42nd IB – is alive. He said Vergara had sent a text message to his colleagues that he is just hiding in the vicinity after surviving the ambush in the outskirts of Barangay San Francisco in Presentacion town. Cabunoc said they had been told by civilians in the area that they saw the bodies of the four missing Army men. But he said the military will consider the four as “MIA” until their bodies have been recovered. “We are not yet sure if they are alive, but there were civilians who reported that four of the soldiers died in the jungles. We, though, can’t say if that is true (that they are dead), unless (their bodies are) found by our own soldiers,” Cabunoc told the media..... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100531nat2.html

NATION RP saves nuke meet from collapse, reaps praises NPA ambushes gov’t troops; 5 soldiers go ‘MIA’ Senate sessions resume today, but legislative work doubted Security forces encircle Sayyaf kidnappers in Basilan Disqualification case vs Palawan’s Mitra pressed Cops eyed to serve as BEIs in Lanao special poll