Thursday, March 26, 2015

Army gaining ground vs insurgents in Davao Region

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 25): Army gaining ground vs insurgents in Davao Region

The military claimed to have made headway in its operation against the communist rebels in Eastern Mindanao during the first quarter of 2015 despite heightened atrocities.

Colonel Romeo Brawner, spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said residents in the countryside are able to cooperate freely in the government’s peace and development outreach program as they see local government units dealing directly to them by facilitating the solutions to the issues besetting the communities by responding with the corresponding tangible projects.

He said the success in the first quarter is attributed to the police, local government units, line government agencies, stakeholders and the soldiers.

“The Philippine government is winning in the campaign in the Eastern Mindanao Command, an effort initiated both by the Armed Forces and the local government units, in the program 'whole of nation' approach,” Brawner said.

He said the insurgency took a toll on the lives of Filipinos on both sides.

Brawner said during the first quarter of 2015, a total of 17 rebels were killed in various encounters with the soldiers, 36 surrenderees with nine bringing along their weapons while 27 yielded their firearms.

He said seven rebels were also captured in the series of security operations.

Brawner said a total of 57 firearms were also recovered in the same duration.

“We also took cognizance of the information given by the residents. More people are reporting to us about the rebel presence, that is why we are able to successfully hit them because of the reports reaching the authorities from the residents,” he said.

Brawner said that on the government side, a total of 19 soldiers were killed and 78 were wounded, attributed to the use of landmines during the first quarter of 2015.

He said one policeman was killed and 11 other cops were wounded in the same period.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=747845

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