The slain trooper has been identified as Corporal Felix M. Pico Jr., a 32-year-old intelligence operative assigned at the 54th Infantry Battalion that has its headquarters in Butigue, Paracelis, Mt. Province. Based on investigation by the Ifugao police, Pico and an unidentified companion were traveling through a road in Binablayan when six armed men flagged down their motorcycle.
The men instructed Pico to give up his firearm. Pico allegedly refused then tried to escape. That's when the armed men fired upon him. The soldier's body was later recovered by the military in an old nursery in Binablayan.
In related news, government soldiers and policemen are pursuing suspected NPA rebels whom they engaged in a brief firefight in the town of Baggao in Cagayan, early Friday morning. Soldiers from the 53rd Reconnaissance Company and 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army were conducting combat clearing operations in barangay Asinga-Via when they crossed paths with a group of armed men. No one was reported to have been hurt or killed during the encounter.
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