NPA claims victory in Cotabato

From the Mindanao Examiner (Jan 26): NPA claims victory in Cotabato

Communist rebels on Saturday claimed responsibility on a series of attacks against government forces in the southern Philippines. Rigoberto Sanchez, a spokesman for the New People’s Army, said rebel forces sustained its campaign against the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command.

He said rebels recently bombed a military convoy of the 57th Infantry Battalion in the village of Kisante in North Cotabato’s Makilala town, wounding 5 soldiers.  “The NPA's ambush in Makilala was aimed at deterring troops who were on their way to its tactical command post in Alang-alang detachment where the AFP mounted two batteries of 105 howitzer that conducted shelling operations towards the village of Cabilao,” Sanchez said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

He said the NPA used a command-detonated explosive in the ambush directed against the 57th Infantry Battalion which is protecting the Energy Development Company, formerly Philippine National Oil Company, in Kidapawan City and Dole Philippines banana plantation in North Cotabato.

He said another attack killed 4 government troops and wounded over a dozen soldiers belonging to the 28th Infantry Battalion in Lupon town. There was no immediate statement from the Eastern Mindanao Command. The NPA has been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.

http://mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20130126101123