NPA defy Aquino mandate, intensifies operations in Compostela Valley

From the Manila Bulletin (Apr 24): NPA defy Aquino mandate, intensifies operations in Compostela Valley

The New People’s Army (NPA) is seemingly testing the patience of President Aquino after renewing its tactical offensive by firing a grenade launcher on a police station and abducting a soldier in Compostela Valley.

This developed as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) ordered its armed wing, NPA, to intensify the conduct of roadblocks in an apparent taunt to Aquino’s instruction for a crackdown on all NPA checkpoints following the ambush on 78-year old Gingoog City Mayor Ruth Guingona, mother of Sen. Teofisto Guingona, on Saturday that left two of her civilian escorts dead and inflicted injuries on the lady local chief executive.

Senior Supt. Camilo Cascolan, director of the Compostela Valley police, said the first attack occurred at around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday when communist rebels fired a grenade launcher towards the Mabini Police Station.

“The explosive hit the second floor of outside the building and its glass window,” said Cascolan, noting that the there was no reported casualty during the blast.
“The grenade launcher was fired at the time when there was a power outage in the area,” he added.

At around 7 a.m. Wednesday, a group of communist rebels engaged the operatives of the 71^st Infantry Batallion in Barangay Elizalde in Maco town.

There was also no reported casualty in the clash but Cascolan said another group of rebels abducted a soldier who was on the way to the public market.

“There were three of them but the two other soldiers were able to escape,” said Cascolan.

In a statement, the CPP said it has ordered the NPA to enforce the prohibition against the bearing of firearms by election candidates and their escorts while campaigning in areas within what it described as “jurisdiction of the people's democratic government”.

“The CPP dismissed Aquino's orders as empty bluster which the AFP and PNP are incapable of enforcing. The armed forces and police personnel of the reactionary government are thinly stretched and cannot possibly cover all areas under the jurisdiction of the people's organs of political power,” the statement read.

"In accordance with the policies issued by the people's democratic government, the New People's Army can setup checkpoints or roadblocks as part of its retinue of measures to maintain peace and order and ensure the protection of the rights and welfare of the masses against the dirty and violent conduct of the reactionary elections,” it added.

The 4,000-strong NPA has been waging more than four decades of armed struggle against the government, which in turn, has been encouraging the group to go back to the negotiating table. The recent peace talks, however, hit a snag.

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