NPA attacks thwarted in four provinces over Holy Week, AFP claims

From GMA News Online (Apr 3): NPA attacks thwarted in four provinces over Holy Week, AFP claims

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Tuesday said that it managed to thwart the planned atrocities of the New People's Army in four provinces during the Holy Week.

Even if the NPA was able to conduct a series of attacks during the Holy Week, AFP Public Affairs Office chief Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Garcia said that government troops have also managed to successfully thwart other planned attacks in Misamis Oriental, Davao Del Norte, Camarines Norte, and Quezon Province.

"These legitimate and intelligence-driven military operations led to the neutralization of five CPP-NPAs and confiscation of five assorted firearms and six improvised explosive devices," Garcia said in a statement.

The AFP also strongly condemned the atrocities committed by NPA members during the Holy Week, saying that one of the attacks resulted in the deaths of two NPA members who surrendered to government forces.

"Despite declaring a halt to their tactical offensives for the holidays, four atrocities were launched by NPA terrorists targetting government troops as well as civilians and properties," Garcia said.

Garcia said that NPA rebels ambushed two NPA rebels who recently surrendered in Montevista, Compostela Valley and the soldiers who accompanied them.

"The attack also endangered the lives of a barangay captain and a councilor who assisted the two former rebels. We believe that their former members are in possession of some knowledge that will expose the CPP-NPA-NDF," he added.

The rebels also burned construction equipment which include give units of backhoe, four dump trucks, and one bulldozer in Davao City.

The said equipment, amounting to millions of pesos, were intended for the construction of a bypass road in Buhangin District, said Garcia.

Such action, according to Garcia, manifested that the "CPP-NPA-NDF is anti-development and anti-progress."

"Such atrocities against the people and terroristic activities against communities only show their true color and reinforce their terror tag," Garcia said.

The AFP has also recorded two attacks in the form of harassment in military detachments in Pigcawayan, Cotabato on March 28 and T'boli, South Cotabato on March 29. There was no casualty on the government side during the two incidents while one M-16 rifle was recovered in Pigcawayan.

The AFP, meanwhile, reiterated its call to the communist rebels to "wake up" and "join the mainstream society and work for peace and progress."

"We call on the public to be more vigilant and report to our units on the ground any presence of terrorists and criminals in their communities. The CPP-NPA-NDF respects no occasion, religious or not, in their conduct of armed atrocities," Garcia added.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/648766/npa-attacks-thwarted-in-four-provinces-over-holy-week-afp-claims/story/