Troops after Bagani group encounter NPA rebels thrice

From Malaya Business Insight (Sep 9): Troops after Bagani group encounter NPA rebels thrice

GOVERNMENT forces pursuing the Magahat/Bagani Force involved in the killing last week of three civilians in Surigao del Sur have thrice clashed with a New People’s Army group.

The Magahat/Bagani Force is being tagged by the leftist human rights group Karapatan as a paramilitary force of the Army. The military has belied this and said the Magahat/Bagani can be considered a private armed group.

Last September 1, about 20 members of the Magahat/Bagani group swooped down on barangay Diatagon, Lianga town and burned the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development Cooperative and other structures in the barangay. The incident left three civilians dead, including an official of the cooperative.

The military has since been trying to disband the group.

“We had three consecutive encounters but these are not against the Bagani forces. These are from the Guerilla Front 19 (of the NPA),” said Capt. Joe Patrick Martinez, public affairs officer of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City.

“We are wondering why members of the Guerilla Front 19 are in the area (barangay Diatagon),” he said adding there has been no reported NPA presence in the barangay recently.

On an alliance between the NPA and the Bagani group, Martinez said the Bagani is against the NPA because the latter has been recruiting lumad, or indigenous people, into the communist group.

The military earlier said “bagani” means tribal warrior, and every tribe has its own “bagani.’

Martinez said the most recent encounter with the NPA was last September 7 in barangay Bolhoon, San Miguel town at around 8:50 a.m.

The brief firefight between Scout Rangers and about 30 members of the NPA’s Guerilla Front 19 resulted in the recovery of three improvised explosive devices, blasting caps, electric wires, and seven magazines of AK-47 and M-16 rifles, he said.

Martinez said there reported casualties on the NPA side. He said pursuit operations were ongoing as of yesterday.

The second clash was on September 5, between soldiers and policemen and the same NPA group, in the same barangay. The 20-minute firefight resulted in the wounding of PO1 Alvin Mirador.

The first clash was on September 3, Martinez said. The firefight was with about seven members of Front 19, in barangay Diatagon in Lianga, the site of the burning and killing of civilians.

http://malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/troops-after-bagani-group-encounter-npa-rebels-thrice