BORONGAN CITY — The Philippine Army reported on Sunday that a high-ranking leader of the New People's Army died in a clash between soldiers and rebels in an upland village of Borongan City in Eastern Samar last Saturday.

Authorities identified the slain insurgent leader as Martin Colima alias Moki, believed to be the secretary of the sub-regional committee Sesame of the NPA's Eastern Visayas regional party committee.

The Army said that Colima died during a gun battle between soldiers and a band of 10 rebels around noon on Saturday in the vicinity of remote Barangay San Gabriel.

Army's 78th Infantry Battalion commander Lt. Col. Allan Tria narrated that troops were in the village in response to repeated reports of civilians regarding the presence of the NPA in the area, conducting extortion activities and finding chances to attack members of the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit and former rebels.

"Details of their locations, movements, and activities revealed by the civilians provided our patrolling troops a chance to track their location, which resulted in an encounter that killed Colima. Our soldiers also recovered one caliber. 45 pistol and seven backpacks in the encounter site," Tria said.

Colima was also believed to be the mastermind and one of the perpetrators of the ambush incident along a major highway in Libuton village, Borongan City on 13 December 2019 where a policeman and three civilians were killed while 12 other civilians, including three minors, were wounded.

Army's 802nd Infantry Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Noel Vestuir is saddened by the death of "another fellow Filipino" and urged Colima's family and relatives to give him a decent burial.

"With the death of the top NPA leader in our area of responsibility, it is very imminent that their fighters under SRC Sesame will lose direction, be demoralized, and be incapable of protracted fighting for a lost cause and incorrect communist ideology," Vestuir said.

The remote communities of Borongan City used to be one of the centers of NPA terrorist activities in Samar Island.