Army, NPA disown Butuan clash

From the Manila Standard Today (Mar 31): Army, NPA disown Butuan clash

The communist New People’s Army denied on Sunday any involvement in the unprecedented Good Friday attack on a religious ceremony in Butuan City in Agusan del Norte that resulted in the death of two militiamen and shocked around 3,000 residents who participated in the rites.

Jorge Madlos, a long-time rebel commander in Mindanao and spokesman of the communist National Democratic Front, said he contacted NPA field commanders in the area and they assured him that they did not deploy any units in the area.

“I think it’s a mis-encounter between the Special Forces of the Philippine Army, the militiamen and the policemen,” said Madlos, who is also known as Ka Oris. “I called up our field commanders and they said they did not deploy any force in the area.”

Madlos claimed the NPA could not have launched the attack because the area where the incident took place was quite near a camp of army commandos.

Lt. Col. Eugenio Osias IV, spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City, said the military was not surprised at Madlos’ denial, but Butuan City residents knew who was responsible for the attack.

The incident happened around 5 a.m. on Good Friday when about 3,000 Catholic devotees, including Agusan del Norte Representative Jose Aquino II, were holding a Stations of the Cross ceremony, called “Panaad 2013,” in Barangay Anticala, 25 kilometers from Butuan City.

About 15 communist rebels fired on government forces deployed to secure the ceremony, resulting in the death of militiamen Ariel Andohoyan and Ernie Darafil, both residents of the barangay.

Osias said the nearby commando base then dispatched units to fight off the rebels in a 10-minute firefight that scared devotees to scamper in different directions.

Osias said the 3 rd Special Forces Battalion, under Lt. Col. Potenciano Camba, soon restored calm, but asked civilians to stay under cover for more than three hours while the army commandos secured the area.

Osias said the attackers are believed to be members of the Guerilla Front Committee 21-C of the NPA’s North Eastern Mindanao Committee.

The attack coincided with the NPA’s 44th anniversary when the communist group issued orders to its units across the country to “intensify tactical offensives nationwide, win ever greater victories in our people’s war.”

“This entails the NPA encircling the cities from the countryside, making the enemy bleed from many wounds and accumulating military strength until it gains the capability of seizing the cities nationwide,” according to its Web site http://www.philippinerevolution.net.

The communist leadership also ordered the “strike forces” of the NPA to “carry out ambushes, raids and other disarming operations at an accelerated rate and with short rest periods. They must wage only the battles that they are capable of winning. They must target the stationary and moving weak points of the enemy.”

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/03/31/army-npa-disown-butuan-clash/