BUTUAN, Philippines - At least 30 families have abandoned their homes in the southern Philippine province of Agusan del Sur as fighting raged on between government troopers and suspected communist rebels, the provincial government said on Saturday.
A news dispatch by the Agusan del Sur Provincial Information Office said the villagers in Sitio Lamasaya of Barangay Fortuna in Veruela started fleeing Friday night to avoid getting caught in the crossfire..
Information Officer Ferdinand Perez said evacuees are now housed at Fortuna Elementary School and were being taken cared of by Veruela Mayor Salimar Loloy" Mondejar.
Perez said at least four NPA guerillas were killed and a government militia member was seriously wounded when some 60 New Peoples Army (NPA) fighters attacked a military outposts in Katipunan, an adjacent barangay, late afternoon on Friday.
The Provincial Police Office based in Prosperidad town confirmed the encounter but said they were still verifying identity of the militia member who got wounded.
Chief Supt. Jaime Eloreta Milla, director of the Caraga regional police, earlier ordered a full alert status to all municipal police stations following two NPA attacks and raids of two police stations in the island of Siargao on June 26.
In those two raids, rebels captured at least 16 short and long government service firearms and ammunitions and destroyed office equipment and facilities.
The government has filed robbery and rebellion charges against exiled Communist Party of the Philippines founder (Jose Maria (Joma) Sison, NPA Mindanao leader George Madlos aka Ka Oris who hails from Siargao Island, and 15 NPA raiders got caught in a hot pursuit encounters.
No words were pronounced nor what actions were done or taken by the Surigao del Norte Provincial Prosecutors Office were the charges were lodged.
Hundreds if not thousands of cases were already filed against New Peoples Army but it were never known what happened to those cases. - GMANews.TV