Communist rebels killed 7 government soldiers in separate attacks in southern Philippines in retaliation to the brutal slaying of a farmer and his son by the military, a spokesman for the New People’s Army said on Monday.
Roel Agustin said rebel forces ambushed members of the 66th Infantry Battalion in the town of New Bataan in Compostela Valley province. He said another NPA unit also attacked soldiers from the 67th Infantry Battalion in Baganga town in nearby Davao Oriental and in Trento town in Agusan del Sur province. He said the rebels seized several weapons from the slain soldiers.
Agustin accused troops from the 66th Infantry Battalion as behind the murder of farmer Rolando Dagansan, 43, and son Juda, 15, in New Bataan town on October 12. He said the two victims belonged to the Mandaya tribe.
“The two Mandaya Lumads came from harvesting corn in their farm in Kabityan and were on their way to their home in Taytayan at 3 a.m. when soldiers attacked them. Their bodies were badly disfigured with so many gunshot wounds and their heads were defaced while Rolando’s arm was amputated. They were killed by a ruthless Army unit who concealed its fascist operations by using as pretext a purported medical mission in Manurigao.”
“Thus, it is only fitting that the tactical offensives launched by the New People’s Army Comval Davao East Coast Sub-Regional Command on that same day is revolutionary justice for the Dagansans and other victims of military fascism, like Gregorio Amancio who was killed by the 66th Infantry Battalion inside his house last July 19 also in New Bataan town,” Agustin said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
There was no immediate statement from the military on the accusations of the NPA, but Agustin said rebel forces would continue offensive operations in the southern region, a known communist strong hold in the Philippines. He also dismissed military pronouncement that many provinces were liberated from communist control or influence.
“The NPA’s offensives give lie to the AFP’s pronouncement that the fascist troops are already done in clearing Davao Oriental and some parts of Compostela Valley of the revolutionary movement. Red fighters have engaged the 67th Infantry Battalion four times in Baganga, once in Trento in Agusan del Sur; another in Compostela, and conducted three sniping operations and one harassment operations, all resulting to platoon-sized fatalities and platoon-sized casualties against the AFP unit over the last few months,” Agustin said.
“The AFP is daydreaming if it can obliterate the NPA and stifle strong opposition of revolutionary forces and the masses against large-scale mining. As more army battalions are poured in the impoverished and typhoon-ravaged areas of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental under the (anti-insurgency campaign) Oplan Bayanihan, the people's army escalates further its tactical offensives. Likewise, the revolutionary masses are ever prepared to intensify the people’s war against a fascist, corrupt and hated U.S.-Aquino regime,” he added.
The rebels are also holding two army soldiers - Privates Marnel Cinches and Jerrel Yurong – who are members of the 8th Infantry Battalion. Both Cinches and Yurong were unarmed and on their way to the village of Buntungon in Impasug-ong town in Bukidnon province, also in southern Philippines, when rebels captured them on August 22 and declared the pair as prisoners of war.
Maj. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, the regional military chief, has ordered security forces to pursue the rebels who are holding the two soldiers. The military said the NPA has kidnapped at least 21 soldiers the past four years in eastern Mindanao alone and used them as political propaganda.
The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been fighting for decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. The armed conflict in the Philippines is the world’s longest-running communist insurgency in the world.
http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/10/communist-rebels-kill-7-soldiers-in.html
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