NDF warns US troops not to venture too far into guerrilla zones

From the Business Mirror (Dec 29): NDF warns US troops not to venture too far into guerrilla zones

SOMEWHERE IN THE AGUSAN PROVINCES—The National Democratic Front (NDF) is warning American troops in the Philippines not to venture too far in their counterinsurgency actions in guerrilla zones, saying that the foreign troops can become targets “once the security of our forces get threatened.”

 

Ka Oris, the nom de guerre of Jorge Madlos, the NDF spokesman in Mindanao, said there were already sightings of US troops joining Filipino soldiers in counterinsurgency patrols in the Southern Mindanao area.

 

“While these US troops acted only as military advisers or just getting counterinsurgency experience, we would like to warn them that once our troops get threatened and they happened to be with Filipino troops, then they also become our targets,” Ka Oris told reporters on Wednesday during the 45th anniversary founding of its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines.

 

He said a revolutionary warning to the US troops had been announced previously and for a few years “the revolutionary movement could only describe their presence as a violation of the sovereignty of the Philippines.”

 

That was the farthest he could describe the relation of Filipino guerrillas with US troops, that have become regular fixtures in Filipino military camps in the Philippines after the Philippine Senate booted out two US bases in 1994.

 

Many US troops have been stationed in the Zamboanga Peninsula and on several occasions, they were also seen in forward detachments of Filipino troops in stronghold areas of both the Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf in the southwestern island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

 

There were no armed engagements recorded yet with the New People’s Army, but Ka Oris said the NDF considered uncomfortable the increasing frequency of sorties of US drones in Mindanao.

 

He said these drone flights were intelligence data-gathering activities and warned that “if we feel that these already threatened the security of our areas, then we have no recourse but to retaliate.” He did not elaborate.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/news/regions/25097-ndf-warns-us-troops-not-to-venture-too-far-into-guerrilla-zones