18 Troopers, Paramilitary Men Killed in NPA Attacks
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
may be flexing presidential power nowadays with a series of harsh
preemptive measures against the oust-Arroyo movement and opposition
groups. Reports from the provinces show a different picture however with
claims by the Marxist New People’s Army (NPA) of fresh tactical offensives
against government troops.
By Bulatlat
|
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be flexing
presidential power nowadays with a series of harsh preemptive measures
against the oust-Arroyo movement and opposition groups. Reports from the
provinces show a different picture however with claims by the Marxist New
People’s Army (NPA) of fresh tactical offensives against government
troops.
NPA attacks carried out in September
killed at least 18 soldiers and led to the confiscation of several
high-powered firearms, statements sent to the media by the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) revealed.
The offensives took place in the
northern Philippine province of Isabela and the upland provinces of
Misamis Oriental, Surigao del Sur and Bukidnon in Mindanao.
The ambushes, raids and other
offensives were carried out in the midst of government claims of the
resumption of peace talks between it and the NDFP in Oslo, Norway. They
also happened in the thick of intense counter-insurgency operations by
military and police forces resulting in the killing of civilians, it was
learned.
|
Red fighters march
during a recent NPA anniversary celebration somewhere in northern
Philippines
FILE PHOTO |
According to the NDFP, a group of NPA
guerrillas ambushed soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division at
Sitio (sub-village) Dugo-Dugo, Barangay (village) Pelaez in Claveria town,
Misamis Oriental last Sept. 26.
Four of the soldiers were killed,
Cesar Renerio, spokesperson of NDFP-North Central Mindanao Region, said.
At dawn the day earlier, an NPA team
from the Eking Balacuit Command destroyed the Philippine Army’s
communications facilities in Ginalaban, Salay same province. Two of the
three antenna towers were disabled, a separate statement said.
Soldiers belonging to the 9th IB who
were guarding the communications facilities fired back. Their detachment
was only 300 meters away from the towers.
In Barangay San Carlos, Echague, Isabela Sept. 24, the NPA
raided the camp of a platoon of Army troopers. Five of the soldiers were
confirmed dead. An M-60 machinegun and one M-14 rifle were seized, it was
learned.
Meanwhile, detachments of the
AFP-Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units) in the towns of
Cagwait and Marihatag, both in Surigao del Sur were also attacked by the
NPA Sept. 22. There were no details.
On Sept. 11, the NPA’s Apolonio
Mendoza Command (AMC) killed at least three troopers and wounded several
others in an ambush in Barangay San Pedro, Lopez, Quezon.
The NPA has been waging an armed
struggle for 36 years. Philippine defense officials have admitted that the
NPA has been able to regain lost ground following ideological splits in
the early 1990s and remains the country’s top “security threat.”
Bulatlat
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