NARVACAN, Ilocos Sur – Seven soldiers, including a lieutenant and one CAFGU member, were killed and four others were seriously wounded in an encounter between government forces and a band of fully-armed New People’s Army (NPA) in barangay Bao-yan, Boliney, Abra on Wednesday.

The soldiers from the army’s 41st Infantry Battalion based in Lagangilang, Abra were clearing the road all the way from Manabo to Boliney when land mines planted by the rebels exploded.

The NPAs were allegedly intending to snatch ballot boxes from Boliney.

Colonel Loreto Rirao, commander of the Army’s 503rd Brigade based in Barangay Sulvec, Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, identified the dead soldiers as 2nd Lieutenant Mark Evan Onrubia, Sgt. Edmund Soriano, Corporal Antonio Gestiada, Private First Class Peter Gumbal, Pfc Harvey Bumangit, Pfc Reynante Barcena, Pfc Bobster Banatao and Cafgu Member Florentino Palkiw.

Rirao identified the two wounded soldiers and two wounded CAFGUs as Corporals Esteban Langcay and Dante Estrada; and CAFGU Members Jushus Bay-ed and Pablito Colis.

“The soldiers were sent to the area to secure the transport of ballot boxes from the town of Boliney andits neighboring towns,” Rirao said.

Reports said that a fierce firefight between an army reinforcement and the NPA rebels lasted for one hour. before the rebels withdrew with an undetermined number of casualties as indicated by scattered bloodstains in their escape routes.

Earlier reports received by the 503rd Brigade headquarters stated that the NPA rebels were conducting road blockade to snatch or steal ballot boxes.

The reports further stated that the rebels were supporting unidentified political candidates who allegedly paid huge sums of money for the permit-to-win (PTW) imposed by them.

“We took seriously the intelligence reports that we received and sent our troops to conduct patrol” Colonel Rirao said.

“This is again a showcase of the terroristic approach of the CPP/NPA/NDF in discrediting the conduct of the election,” Rirao said.

The incident also proved that the NPAs are indeed human rights violators because they used land mines which are prohibited by the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Geneva Conventions, he added.

Lt. Colonel Raul Bautista, commander of the army’s 41st Infantry Battalion, disclosed that the land mines that exploded were cellphone-detonated.

Bautista said that ballot boxes are still in Boliney town proper.