Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be flexing presidential power nowadays with a series of harsh preemptive measures against the oust-Arroyo movement and opposition groups. Reports from the provinces show a different picture however with claims by the Marxist New People’s Army (NPA) of fresh tactical offensives against government troops.

By Bulatlat

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be flexing presidential power nowadays with a series of harsh preemptive measures against the oust-Arroyo movement and opposition groups. Reports from the provinces show a different picture however with claims by the Marxist New People’s Army (NPA) of fresh tactical offensives against government troops.

NPA attacks carried out in September killed at least 18 soldiers and led to the confiscation of several high-powered firearms, statements sent to the media by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) revealed.

The offensives took place in the northern Philippine province of Isabela and the upland provinces of Misamis Oriental, Surigao del Sur and Bukidnon in Mindanao.

The ambushes, raids and other offensives were carried out in the midst of government claims of the resumption of peace talks between it and the NDFP in Oslo, Norway. They also happened in the thick of intense counter-insurgency operations by military and police forces resulting in the killing of civilians, it was learned.

According to the NDFP, a group of NPA guerrillas ambushed soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division at Sitio (sub-village) Dugo-Dugo, Barangay (village) Pelaez in Claveria town, Misamis Oriental last Sept. 26.

Four of the soldiers were killed, Cesar Renerio, spokesperson of NDFP-North Central Mindanao Region, said.

At dawn the day earlier, an NPA team from the Eking Balacuit Command destroyed the Philippine Army’s communications facilities in Ginalaban, Salay same province. Two of the three antenna towers were disabled, a separate statement said.

Soldiers belonging to the 9th IB who were guarding the communications facilities fired back. Their detachment was only 300 meters away from the towers.

In Barangay San Carlos, Echague, Isabela Sept. 24, the NPA raided the camp of a platoon of Army troopers. Five of the soldiers were confirmed dead. An M-60 machinegun and one M-14 rifle were seized, it was learned.

Meanwhile, detachments of the AFP-Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units) in the towns of Cagwait and Marihatag, both in Surigao del Sur were also attacked by the NPA Sept. 22. There were no details.

On Sept. 11, the NPA’s Apolonio Mendoza Command (AMC) killed at least three troopers and wounded several others in an ambush in Barangay San Pedro, Lopez, Quezon.

The NPA has been waging an armed struggle for 36 years. Philippine defense officials have admitted that the NPA has been able to regain lost ground following ideological splits in the early 1990s and remains the country’s top “security threat.” (Bulatlat.com)

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