The Philippine military on Sunday reported that a top leader of the communist New People's Army (NPA) with a $70,000 bounty on his head was killed in a recent encounter with security forces in Sorsogon province in the Bicol Region.Brigadier General Joselito Kakilala said the body of Recto Golimlim was recovered from a remote village in the town of Magallanes following an encounter with soldiers on April 27. But just last Friday a military asset identified the slain militant as Golimlim, described as an explosives expert and the number two man in the NPA regional command in Bicol.
Also on Friday, the military announced the arrest of another alleged top NPA officer, identified as Felix Armodia. He is blamed in a series of attacks on agricultural plantations and construction companies in the provinces of North and South Cotabato and Davao del Sur in Mindanao.
Captain Alberto Caber, spokesman for the military's Eastern Mindanao Command, said, "He (Armodia) was responsible for the series of attacks on plantations and construction firms in the region that did not give in to their demand for protection money."
The killing and arrest of the two ranking NPA leaders followed attacks by Maoist militants that resulted in the death of at least six soldiers and the wounding of another 15 in the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Isabela in Northern Luzon.