The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the New People’s Army (NPA) has inflicted fatalities on government forces since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared the elimination of all guerilla fronts in the country last month.
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said at least nine Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) troopers were killed in August alone in heightened military operations against NPA units across the country.
“In a series of encounters from August 9 to 12 in Baco, Oriental Mindoro, at five AFP soldiers were killed (including one who drowned while crossing the river during their retreat) while three were wounded,” Valbuena said.
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In Albay, three soldiers were killed, and another wounded, when a 16-man squad of the 49th IB was ambushed by a team of NPA Red fighters in Ligao City last August 21, he added.
“In Capiz, the AFP reported one soldier killed-in-action, and another wounded in clashes with the NPA in Tapaz town last August 23,” he said.
In his fourth State of the Nation Address last month, Marcos claimed: “At last, there are no remaining guerilla groups in the country.
“The government will ensure that they won’t be able to recover,” he said, directing concerned government agencies to sustain counter-insurgency efforts, focused on preventing the emergence of new rebel groups.
But the CPP pointed out that Marcos’ boast “has exploded in his face” as a number of armed encounters have erupted across the country since.
“In a matter of several weeks, a number of armed clashes have been reported in the provinces of Quezon, Mindoro, Albay, Northern Samar, Capiz, Lanao del Norte and Bukidnon,” Valbuena said.
The CPP officer said that since Marcos’ SONA, the AFP launched a new wave of “brutal and costly armed offensives,” mobilizing all available combat battalions that have also terrorized rural communities.
The Party said AFP’s operations involve division-sized attacks with around a thousand or more armed troops and bolstered with aerial support against NPA platoons, squads, or even teams.
“Inadvertently, the AFP brass undermines their command-in-chief’s claim, plainly acknowledging that guerrilla units continue to operate across the country, even if they make it a point to downplay the NPA as ‘weakened’ or ‘remnants,’” Valbuena said.
The CPP has admitted to suffering casualties but did not mention the number of its own fatalities this month.
Valbuena said NPA fighters have placed themselves on alert and are on an active defense posture, conducting quick guerrilla maneuvers to elude and move out of their enemy’s encirclements.
“They have detached squads and teams to wait in ambush or harass the marauding fascist troops,” Valbuena revealed.
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Communities terrorized
He added that US support in AFP offensives, including the use of US-supplied jetfighters, 500-lb bombs and howitzers are failing, succeeding only in terrorizing communities in Northern Samar, Quezon, Bukidnon and Capiz with heavy aerial bombing.
Valbuena said Marcos was premature when he “strategic victory” against the NPA, “just as the Ramos regime did in 1992.”
“Apologists of the reactionary ruling system declare that the revolution is over, with chief-of-staff Romeo Brawner stating that a peace agreement is set to be signed wherein the NPA will agree to end the armed struggle,” Valbuena added.
The CPP said that peace that is premised on the suppression of their armed adversaries and of the people is doomed to fail.
“Marcos refuses to acknowledge the historical fact that as long as social injustice, poverty, hunger, tyranny and fascist armed repression prevail, the oppressed and exploited people will take up arms and fight back,” the group said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
