COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 12, 2013) – Communist rebels on Friday owned up a daring raid on a police station in Bukidnon province in the southern Philippines and boasted the confiscation of assorted government weapons.
Isabel Fermiza, a spokesperson for the New People’s Army, said 5 policemen were also killed and wounded in the raid on the Kibawe town’s police headquarters on December 12.
“Enemy casualties would have not occurred had the police opted to leave the NPA untouched when the latter conducted the raid and disarming of the PNP municipal headquarters,” she said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Fermiza said an undetermined number of government reinforcement from the Regional Mobile Group and the 8th Infantry Battalion were also hit by the NPA’s “command detonated explosives” an hour after rebels fled.
She said rebel forces confiscated 7 automatic rifles and six pistols form the police arsenal, including transceiver radios and uniforms.
“Thursday’s tactical offensive not only aimed to secure the much-needed firearms that would enable the NPA sub-regional command to develop more fighting platoons. The NPA raid in Bukidnon was also meant to punish an abusive police unit and an army unit responsible for the forced recruitment of paramilitary Cafgus and building of Army detachments in several parts of Bukidnon. The masses have successfully struggled against Cafgu conscription in guerrilla base areas and guerrilla zones, as the Army’s Special Operations Teams conduct abusive operations in the province,” she said.
“As the US-Aquino regime suffers from political isolation and incur the people’s wrath due to corruption, inutility and failure to solve the worsening economic crisis, the revolutionary movement continues to take the political-military initiative in advancing the revolutionary struggle to a higher stage while persevering to build and strengthen the People’s Democratic Government,” she added.
The NPA has been waging a secessionist war for many decades now and peace talks with different Filipino governments were unsuccessful. (Mindanao Examiner)
20