Gubat, Sorsogon - Two government troopers and a member of the New People’s Army were killed while two more soldiers were wounded in an encounter at barangay Villareal here April 18, an army official told Bicol Mail.

        Lt. Col. Benigno Antonio, commanding officer of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Batallion, said four casualties government forces were part of a team from the Charlie Company who went on patrol to check the reported presence of armed men in the area.

        Antonio said his men had just taken their lunch when NPA rebels attacked them triggering a firefight which lasted for about 30 minutes.

        Killed on the spot were Pfc Joyce Gutierrez of Bulan, Sorsogon and Pfc. Roberto Duran, a native of Camarines Sur, while those wounded were Pfc Ronel Casiao and a certain Private Cervantes.

        Another team sent to reinforce the embattled soldiers was also ambushed but no casualty was reported, he said.

        Antonio said it took them hours to retrieve the body of the slain soldiers because the rebels laid land mines and other booby traps around the area of the encounter.

        He said they were able to recover four land mines and sixteen molotov bombs wired around the cadavers of Duran and Gutierrez.

        Meanwhile, the body of the slain rebel was recovered in a shallow grave in barangay Tugawe also in this municipality.

        An army spokesman said they received information from residents of the said barangay that a dead body was buried by unidentified men at the outskirts of the village a day after the encounter.

        When Army soldiers arrived at the area to check on the reports they chanced upon the relatives of the slain rebel identified as Rudy Buenaobra digging at the burial site.

        Buenaobra, alias Ka Alvin, was said to be the vice commander of Sentro de Gravidad of the Kilusang Larangang Gerilya 79 and the team leader of the NPA’s sparrow unit in the province.