BUTUAN CITY – Three New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed while several others were believed wounded in an encounter in the mountainous area of Mount Apo-Apo Dugyaman, Barangay Anticala, here, on Friday, June 16. The slain communist guerrillas were two amazons and one male. The Army 29th Infantry (Matatag) Battalion (IB) under the 901st Infantry Brigade are pursuing the fleeing NPA in the mountainous border of this city and Remedios T. Romualdez, Agusan del Norte, towards the Diwata Mountain range. Brig. Gen. George L. Banzon, commander of the 901st Brigade, is personally monitoring the ongoing operation of the 29th IB. Residents reported the presence to the military of some 30 heavily armed NPAs in their makeshift hideout in Mount Apo-Apo Dugyaman. Troops arrived in the area at about 7 a.m., sparking a gunfight and, after several minutes, the NPA scampered to different directions, said Army 4th Infantry (Diamond) Division (4th ID) Pubic Affairs Office (PAO) chief Major Francisco P. Garello Jr. “Our operating troops are still conducting wide pursuit operations to the running NPAs, who believed brought along with them some of their wounded,” he said. “We believed that they have undetermined number of wounded as evidence of bloodstains in the captured hide-out of the NPAs,” Garello said. He said the 29th IB under Lt. Col. Cresencio C. Gargar are still scouring the encounter site and pursuing the fleeing NPA from the SYP 21-C Guerilla Front Committee 21 of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee. Found in the encounter site were one M16 Armalite rifle, five AK 47 rifle, three M4 Rifle, two M203 grenade launcher, four AR rifle, assorted ammunition, food, kitchen utensils, tents, assorted medicines and subversive documents with high intelligence value. No casualty was reported on the government side.