More captured NPA rebels test positive for COVID-19 in Bukidnon

Three more New People’s Army (NPA) rebels captured in another encounter in Bukidnon late last week tested positive for COVID-19, the military said on Monday, September 13.

Major Francisco Garello Jr., spokesman of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said it was the Valencia City Health Office that subjected the rebels – two of them minors – to RT-PCR tests and subsequently informed the military of the results.

The three are among the four rebels caught by soldiers following an encounter in Purok 10, Sitio Nanulang, Barangay Laligan in Valencia City, on Friday, September 10.

More than a dozen NPA rebels captured on separate occasions in Bukidnon last week either tested positive for COVID-19 or showed symptoms of infection. 

In San Fernando town where soldiers clashed with the NPA on Wednesday, September 8, a slain rebel and at least three of nine captured rebels tested positive for COVID-19. The rest showed COVID-19 symptoms.

Brigadier General Ferdinand Barandon, commander of the Army’s 403rd Brigade, said the military placed a group of soldiers involved in the September 10 Valencia encounter in isolation and subjected them to non-confirmatory rapid antigen tests. He did not say what the test results were.

Garello said that since two of the four captured rebels are minors, they were turned over to Valencia’s social welfare and development office. There, they tested positive for COVID-19.

The military said soldiers seized three M16 rifles and three AR15 rifles from the rebels caught in Valencia City.

Garello said three of nine rebels earlier captured in San Fernando town, Bukidnon, were found positive for COVID-19 in the rapid antigen tests and were placed under the custody of the municipal health office.

As the captured rebels showed symptoms, the military placed under isolation an entire squad of soldiers while members of a platoon were under observation in San Fernando town.

Barandon said the San Fernando and Valencia incidents underscored the importance of observing public health protocols even in the military’s counterinsurgency campaign.

“We are now buying antigen test kits for our soldiers and training our medical teams on how to use them,” Barandon said.

He said antigen test kits are easier to use and can serve as “an ideal first line of defense against the COVID-19.” – Rappler.com

Froilan Gallardo is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship