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Monday, November 28, 2005
Military says rebels in C. Mindanao on the run
By Edwin G. Espejo
THE communist-led New People's Army (NPA) in Central Mindanao has so far avoided armed encounters with government soldiers despite the noticeable upsurge of guerilla attacks throughout the country.
Colonel Alfredo Cayton, commanding officer of the 601st Brigade based in Malungon, said the NPAs are now on the run after government forces "successfully destroyed" several rebel camps in the region.
"The 601st Brigade has been on the offensive since July," Cayton said during a forum aired over a local radio station here.
Cayton said they had dismantled a huge rebel camp in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat in February and captured another NPA base in Malapatan, Sarangani in October this year.
Both camps were reportedly used as training grounds by the NPA's main regional guerilla unit, which is headed by a certain Ka Bobo Fernandez.
But Cayton admitted that the NPA are still capable of attacking isolated police outposts and military detachments in the region.
The military officer himself survived an NPA ambush in Alabel, Sarangani several weeks after he took over the brigade command from Brigadier General Alexander Yano.
Except for a brief skirmish in Columbio last February, where two government soldiers were slightly wounded by a land mine explosion, Cayton said there has been no recorded encounter with the Maoist-inspired guerilla forces.
In a separate development, the Valentin Palamine Command of the NPA in Far South Mindanao Region last week denied that 200 of its armed regulars and supporters have surrendered to the government.
Ka Dencio Madrigal, commanding officer of the said NPA command, said the "surrender ceremony" was just a media show of the military.
Madrigal further said that the alleged NPA regulars presented by the military in Barangay Kinam, Malapatan early this month were in fact bandits operating in the area.
(November 28, 2005 issue)
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