Shooting in Makilala, North Cotabato
Police and military personnel traded fires with suspected communist guerillas at a remote village in Makilala, a hinterland town in North Cotabato, around 8 a.m. Monday, police said.
Makilala police said the exchange of fires lasted for 30 minutes.
No one was reported hurt during the armed fighting, reports added.
Despite the intense fighting, none among the residents in the area evacuated, according to SPO3 Rizal Alolod, deputy chief of Makilala PNP.
Operatives of the Special Action Force, an elite unit of the Philippine National Police, with backups from the 57th Infantry Battalion of the Army, were conducting routine patrol operations at Sitio Maasim, Barangay New Baguio in Makilala, when they chanced upon a number of guerillas believed to be members of the Front 72 of the New People’s Army (NPA) Mount Alip Operations Command.
Reports from the intelligence community said the presence of armed men in the area had long been monitored.
It was also said that the rebels are preparing for their summer offensive against military units operating in the hinterlands of Makilala and Tulunan in North Cotabato and Columbio in Sultan Kudarat.
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