DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 23, 2014) – Eight government soldiers were killed in separate attacks by the communist rebel group New People’s Army in the southern Philippines, a spokesman said Monday.
Aris Francisco said rebel forces mounted four counter-offensive actions against the 25th Infantry Battalion, 46th Infantry Battalion and the 72nd Infantry Battalion on June 20 and 22 in the towns of Laak and Monkayo in Compostela Valley province, and in Davao del Norte’s San Isidro town.
He said at least 10 government soldiers were also wounded in the NPA offensives. He said the attacks on military targets were in retaliation to the operations of the Eastern Mindanao Command in the provinces that killed at least 2 innocent civilians.
Francisco said one NPA fighter was also slain in the fighting. He said military operations have affected civilians in the provinces.
“Peasants and lumads continue to suffer from enemy intimidation, psychological warfare and interrogation. The NPA defends the masses by hitting the enemy through effective guerrilla warfare and launching military actions and waging mass campaigns like increasing food sufficiency and combating logging and other environmentally destructive projects.”
“It is sheer arrogance and waste of people’s money on the part of the AFP for intensifying its Oplan Bayanihan operations when it cannot reverse the tide of revolutionary struggle. As the US-Aquino regime becomes more rabid against the NPA, the more they become mercenary and anti-people, the more they are isolated and hated by the masses,” he said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
There was no immediate statement from the Eastern Mindanao Command about the NPA allegations, but the rebel group has been fighting for decades now for the establishment of a communist state in th4 country. (J. Magtanggol)
20