Army to maintain visibility in seized Cotabato NPA camps

From the Mindanao Cross (Dec 17): Army to maintain visibility in seized Cotabato NPA camps

THE military is keen on maintaining high visibility and implementing community projects in the surroundings of the 14 strongholds of the New People’s Army in North Cotabato’s Magpet town, overrun in a series of offensives launched due to mounting complaints of NPA abuses and excessive mulcting of “protection money” from villagers.

Col. Ademar Tomaro, commander of the 602nd Brigade, said their successful take-over of the NPA enclaves was a result of the cooperation of residents in the hinterland barangays in Magpet to the military’s campaign to flush NPAs out of the municipality on the behest of local folks complaining of excessive taxation activities of rebels. Combined combatants of the 57th, 40th, and 7th Infantry Battalions, the elite Scout Rangers and Army Special Forces, begun clearing Magpet from NPA occupation late November, following a series of roadside bombings in the area and harassments by NPAs of villages whose residents refused to shell out “protection money” and food.

More than 30 NPAs have reportedly been wounded in the series of Army-rebel encounters in Magpet in the past four weeks. The most intense of the encounters erupted December 3, where soldiers even used 105 Howitzer cannons to prevent marauding rebels from getting close to a barangay where they were supposed to collect “revolutionary taxes” from farmers. Villagers displaced by the hostilities have confirmed seeing dozens of wounded NPAs, most of them adolescents, being carried away by their comrades while fleeing from the scene.

Maj. Gen. Caesar Ronnie Ordoyo, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, said he was elated with the initial accomplishments of the 602nd Brigade and all Army units involved in the government’s pacification campaign in Magpet. “These operations were launched in response to mounting complaints by local residents on the abuses by the NPAs. People were coerced to pay taxes and give rebels food, in total disregard of human rights and the International Humanitarian Law,” Ordoyo said. Ordoyo said the 6th ID, through the 602nd Brigade, is ready to help NPAs apply for the government’s reconciliation program if they decide to return to the fold of law.

The NPAs have been retaliating for the fall of their camps in Magpet. Three harassments of militia detachments in different parts of the province occurred since December 7. The latest of these retaliatory attacks happened just after noontime of December 12, where NPAs surrounded a detachment at Barangay Tuburan in Makilala, North Cotabato and opened fire with assault rifles, wounding a militiaman named Relex Endencio. Endencio’s companions, led by Army Sgt. Nestor Estante, returned fire and prevented the NPAs from closing in. Two NPAs were wounded in the ensuing encounter. The rebels retreated after sensing they could not breach the triple line of bamboo fences encircling the detachment due to the heavy resistance by the militiamen inside.

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