Two top leaders of the communist New People's Army (NPA) in Eastern Visayas were identified as among those killed in an encounter in the hinterlands of Las Navas, Northern Samar last month, the military said Friday.

Philippine Army Capt. Ryan Layug, 8th Infantry Division spokesperson, said among the casualties identified were Helenita Pardales, "Elay" "Selin", certain aliases of "Biboy" or "Orlan", "Mamoy", "Caridad", "Joshua", and a certain "Boy".

Layug said Pardales was the region's top rebel leader and held the position of Secretary of the NPA's Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee. Pardales allegedly set recruitment quotas for combatants from farmers' children and cadre from universities and colleges and gives the go signal on tactical offensives.

"Biboy" or "Orlan", allegedly headed the regional operations command, and planned and supervised the successful implementation of a tactical offensive by NPA units in the region.

The military official said the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee was behind attacks in the region. Among them was the attack on the Lapinig Police Station in Northern Samar in August 2018, which left two policemen wounded and resulted in the recovery of different low and high-powered firearms.

The group was also accused of masterminding an attack that killed a soldier in Palapag, Northern Samar, on May 21, 2019. On October 7, 2022, two soldiers were killed and another two were wounded, including a 10-year-old civilian by the rebels, military officials said.

They were also allegedly behind a series of ambushes on soldiers. Among these was an incident on April 23, 2019, where the group attacked Community Support Program (CSP) teams in Calbiga, Samar, which killed six soldiers and injured six others.

• AFP says guerrilla fronts now down to 24 from 89 in 2016

—Report by Sharon Evite