Military claims victory over insurgents

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 29): Military claims victory over insurgents

CAMP EVANGELISTA, Cagayan De Oro City –- The military has claimed victory in the battle against the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in Northern Mindanao, an Army official said Tuesday.

In an e-mail sent to various media outlets in the region, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said that “today (Tuesday), the soldiers are celebrating the triumphs in the battle against the insurgents as the communist NPA celebrates its founding anniversary.”

Last month, after a series of combat operations, the military declared the provinces in the Caraga Region as “conflict manageable and ready for further development,” Madrigal said.

He said that the government troops overran the NPA’s main camp in the Caraga after an armed skirmish with the communist rebels in the hinterlands of Jabonga, Agusan Del Norte.

Madrigal said that the military engaged the NPA in a total of 22 running gun battles, which resulted in the death of three rebels and the recovery of assault rifles, mortars, handheld radios and subversive documents before the military completely overran the NPA camp in Jabonga.

“We are saddened with the loss of lives every time a rebel is killed. Had it not been for the NPA leaders who have succeeded in deceiving the innocent civilians, those who were killed in the gun battle with the government troops would have been alive and happy with their families today,” Madrigal said.

He said that the military did not only win the fire fight with the NPA rebels, but is also victorious on the battlefield in the fight for the hearts and minds of the civilian people.

Madrigal also acknowledged the support of the peace-loving people and the cooperation of the civilian community, which led to the success and victory of the government troopers in the fight against the communist insurgency in Northern Mindanao.

The Communist Party of the Philippines – North Central Mindanao Region (CPP-NCMR), however, said that the military has “failed in their counter-revolutionary campaigns and operations to crush the communist guerrilla army.”

In a separate statement, Norsen Manggubat, the CPP-NCMR spokesperson, said that “for several years now, our Red army learned warfare through warfare, earned the overwhelming support of the people and thus, grew from being small and weak to become large and strong.”

Manggubat said that the CPP has implemented reforms in the countryside that have benefited thousands of people through increased benefits and wages of farm workers, providing potable water, and other activities aimed at empowering the marginalized sector in the rural areas.

The CPP-NPA has been waging one of the longest running insurgencies in Southeast Asia for more than four decades now since the NPA was organized in 1969.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=871075