Troops pursue NPA rebels in North Cotabato

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 12): Troops pursue NPA rebels in North Cotabato

Government forces intensified Wednesday their operation against a band of New People's Army (NPA) rebels who recently attacked and seized officials of a remote community in North Cotabato province.

Elements of the 39th Infantry Battalion (IB) and North Cotabato police public safety battalion clashed Tuesday morning with about 50 NPA rebels belonging to Guerilla Front 53 in Barangay (village) Balite, Magpet town, said Lt. Colonel Harold Argamosa, 39th IB chief.

"Our combat operation will continue even during this Holy Week," he said.

Argamosa said the government troops were conducting combat operation against the NPAs who attacked the village of Mahongcog on Sunday. The communist rebels seized village chair Michael Lingaro and 10 of his "tanods" (village watchmen).

The rebels later freed the village chair and his men. About 32 assorted firearms were taken by the rebels from the village.

Argamosa said the Army suffered a fatality and two wounded in the one-hour firefight Tuesday morning in Barangay Balite, which is close to Barangay Mahongcog.

"The NPAs suffered a fatality and three injured," Argamosa said, adding that the wounded rebels were residents of the village recruited by the NPA before the clash.

About 200 families have fled to safer grounds with the local government of Magpet providing emergency assistance to the affected families. They were from the village of Balite who moved to the adjacent villages of Katindu and Anuling in nearby Arakan town, also in North Cotabato.

Argamosa said the attack in Barangay Mahongcog was well planned with the attackers coming in the village using Toyota Fortuner vehicles and passenger vans.

Argamosa vowed to continue pressing the rebels who he condemned "for taking advantage of the government's peace initiative to build forces and collect revolutionary taxes from innocent civilians."

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=979662