Southern Mindanao NPA claim wins in week of actions as rights group decry military ‘atrocities’

From InterAksyon (Aug 9): Southern Mindanao NPA claim wins in week of actions as rights group decry military ‘atrocities’

Communist rebels in Southern Mindanao claimed to have inflicted casualties on military units in a series of “counter-offensives” in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley last week as human rights groups accused government forces of atrocities against peasant and lumad communities in the province.

A statement from the New People’s Army operations command in the region called the actions of the 8th Pulang Bagani Company on August 2, 4 and 5 “just reprisal” for the alleged atrocities committed by the Army’s 25th Infantry Battalion.

Karapatan-Southern Mindanao initially reported that on August 7, Rose Em Sayson was killed when soldiers fired on a truck whose passengers they had mistaken for members of the New People’s Army.

However, the rights group later issued a correction, saying Sayson had died in a fall from the truck.

But, it said, the soldiers, from the 25th IB, did strafe the vehicle, wounding Adam Tawede, a laborer of a logging company "who is now under medical custody of the 10th Infantry Division."

Karapatan also said a number of families in Monkayo, Maragusan and New Bataan towns have also been forced to flee their homes after military aerial bombardment destroyed farms in Barangay Parasanon, Marasugan.

Troops of the 66th Infantry Battalion have also reportedly occupied Sitio Pongpong in Barangay Andap, New Bataan even before the short-lived unilateral ceasefire declared by President Rodrigo Duterte and “hamletted” another community in Purok 4, Kilometer 56, Barangay Rizal, according to Jay Apiag, information officer of the human rights group.

Food blockades have also been reported.

“The military has been staying in the community until now and there are already reported incidents of food blockade, hamletting and harassments affecting 80 families in the said area," Apiag said.

Aside from this, farmer Ronie Escuardo, 29, of Barangay Parasanon, Mawab was seized by soldiers of the 71st Infantry Battalion and allegedly “misrepresented as a NPA member” at the headquarters of the 10th Infantry Division.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA in Southern Mindanao, said there had been no let-up in military combat and psychological warfare operations, which were launched in June, even during Duterte’s ceasefire.

In reprisal, Sanchez said, the NPA “neutralized,” a euphemism for killed, a Corporal Castro, who he described as “an intelligence operative of the 25th IB who was caught conducting combat intel(ligence) operations in the communities of Barangay Baylo, Monkayo.”

“Seized from him were a 9mm caliber and .22 caliber pistols,” he said.

“Two days later, the Red fighters engaged a platoon of the 25th IB in Barangay Pasian, Monkayo, killing two Army soldiers and wounding three others,” Sanchez added.

And around 7:30 a.m. on August 5, “the Red fighters successfully ambushed a company of the 25th IB in Sitio Inuburan, Brangay Rizal, killing five AFP troops, seizing two M203 grenade launchers, one M4 rifle, Harris radios, and … other military hardware.”

Even as they wait for “positive developments” in formal negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, scheduled to start August 20, “the NPA Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command has directed all Red fighters in the region to remain on alert status, intensify its base building and base defense work, expand its services in the guerilla bases and guerilla zones, punish AFP troops operating in civilian communities, and pursue revolutionary justice for the basic masses who are victims of repression and fascist abuses,” Sanchez said.

For its part, Karapatan urged Duterte to “act on these attacks on farmer communities” and to “rein in his army who are acting as human rights violators and spoilers of peace.”

The human rights groups, along with other organizations will conduct a fact-finding mission in affected areas of Compostela Valley.

http://interaksyon.com/article/131260/southern-mindanao-npa-claim-wins-in-week-of-actions-as-rights-group-decry-military-atrocities