Malaybalay City, Bukidnon (CNN Philippines, December 28) — A husband and wife team believed to be top regional leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA), along with their daughter, were among the 10 killed during an encounter with the military in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon on Christmas Day.
LTCol Anthony Bacus, Commanding Officer of the 8th Infantry Battalion, identified the slain rebel leaders as Beverly Sunta and her husband Alfredo Banawan, as well as their daughter Chen-Chen Banawan, all from Sitio Trukat, Barangay Cawayan.
Bacus alleged that Sunta was the secretary general while Banawan was the deputy secretary of the so-called Sub-Regional Committee-2 (SRC2), Headquarters Loader and Regional Sentro De Gravidad (RSDG) Compaq, all of the North Central Mindanao Regional Committee.
The four other fatalities were identified as Penita Singaman, Bebot Solinay, Aurellio Gonsalez, and a certain Loue from Agusan province.
The military said it has yet to identify the three remaining bodies.
Recovered from the rebels were high-powered firearms, cell phones, syringes, medicines, ammunition, projectors, generators, and several documents.
MGen Jose Maria Cuerpo of the 4th Infantry Division described the Christmas Day operation as a major success amid the ongoing effort to rid the Malaybalay City hinterlands of rebels.
In an emailed response, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chief information officer Marco Valbuena said they have yet to receive any information from the NPA in Bukidnon regarding the identities of those killed on Dec. 25.
“What I can state with a high level of certainty is that there was no clash or ground encounter, and that the fatalities died during an aerial bombing and artillery shelling assault during the early morning of December 25. By its own admission, the AFP dropped scores of 250-lb bombs for several hours. This caused an unnecessary number of casualties which violate international rules of war and standards of civilized war,” he said.
“Those who were killed in the AFP’s December 25 attack will be remembered as martyrs of the Filipino people’s struggle,” he added.
The Christmas clash happened amid a two-day holiday ceasefire declared by the CPP.
In November, the government announced that it will resume peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), as both parties acknowledged the “need to unite” to address national challenges, including foreign security threats.
Bukidnon-based correspondent Melchor Velez and senior multiplatform news writer Bamba Galang contributed to this story.
