By Mae Singuay

Around 718 individuals were evacuated following an encounter between government troops and the New People’s Army (NPA) at Barangay Oringao in Negros Occidental’s Kabankalan City yesterday.

“As of 1:30 p.m., we have 258 families, or 718 individuals, nga ara sa Barangay Oringao covered court,” Kabankalan Mayor Benjie Miranda said in a Facebook post.

The evacuees were being accommodated by the local government through the City Social Welfare and Development, he added.

Based on the investigation, two platoons of the 94th Infantry Battalion, together with the Regional Mobile Force and the 2nd Negros Occidental Provincial Mobile Force Company, encountered 15 NPA members while conducting a security patrol in the barangay to validate the reports of extortion and harassment.

The first encounter happened at 5:06 p.m. on Saturday, February 4, in Barangay Oringao’s Purok Mugni. The firefight lasted for 20 minutes.

This prompted the government troops to conduct pursuit operations that resulted in a second encounter in the same barangay around 8:00 a.m. yesterday.

Three unidentified dead bodies were found at the clash site.

Recovered from the site were an M14 rifle, a .45 pistol, and a .38 pistol with ammunition./MS, WDJ