Bukidnon rebels claim death of 3 soldiers, torching of heavy equipment

From InterAksyon (Feb 2): Bukidnon rebels claim death of 3 soldiers, torching of heavy equipment

Communist rebels in Bukidnon province killed three soldiers and “paralyzed” heavy equipment of food processor Del Monte on Wednesday, the same day the New People’s Army announced it is terminating its unilateral ceasefire.

The attacks were announced in a statement, written in Bisaya, released Thursday by Ka Allan Juanito, spokesman of the NPA’s North Central Mindanao Regional Command.

Juanito said the three soldiers, who he described as members of the Community Organizing for Peace and Development unit of the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion, were killed when they attempted to shoot it out with the guerrilla unit that stopped their motorcycle in Sitio Kalib, Barangay Kibalabag in Malaybalay City around 5 p.m. Wednesday.

He said one of the fatalities was a native of Cagayan de Oro based on his identification. The NPA unit seized the three soldiers’ .45 caliber pistols, Juanito said.

Although the military describes COPD teams as a “non-combatants,” the rebels maintain these are combat units that carry out intelligence work and psychological warfare in hinterland communities and could be considered legitimate targets if they encroached on territory the NPA claims to control.

At 10:13 p.m. Wednesday, Juanito said a team of the NPA’s Mt. Kitanglad Subregional Command “paralyzed” the backhoe and bulldozer of Del monte in Barangay Adutyon, Pangantucan. The rebels typically set fire to heavy equipment of large corporations they accuse of environmental destruction and displacing indigenous people and peasant communities.

Even before these, Juanito said, on January 30, the NPA had also harassed a COPD unit of the 8th IB commanded by a Lieutenant Calumba that had been maintaining a base in Barangay Concepcion in Valencia City, Bukidnon since November.

Among others, he said, the unit organized the “Duterte Drug Squad Movement” led by the Military Intelligence Battalion that used the government’s war on drugs as cover to interrogate farmers on the NPA.

Also on that day, he said, rebels under the South Central Bukidnon- Sub-Regional Command “paralyzed” a drump truck owned by a couple they accused of land grabbing and exploiting their workers in Barangay Salawagan, Quezon town.

In response to the incident, Lt. Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero, commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom), said all units under his command are now on active posture for possible attacks.

"Alert troops for possible attacks. Protect the communities from criminal acts of extortion, burning of equipment, abductions, liquidations and other forms of atrocities," Guerrero ordered.

In Bukidnon, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, acknowledged that three of his soldiers were waylaid by armed men believed to be NPA rebels in Malaybalay.

Reinforcement troops recovered on Thursday morning the bodies of the soldiers peppered with bullets along the national highway.

"We continue to uphold the supremacy of the peace process and we support the government. But at the moment we have already directed our troops to maintain proactive defense," he said, adding that the three soldiers had gone to Malaybalay from the town of Impasugong to get supplies.

http://interaksyon.com/article/136796/bukidnon-rebels-claim-death-of-3-soldiers-torching-of-heavy-equipment