Sunday, December 21, 2008 Troops overrun rebels' camp
GOVERNMENT troops overran a suspected camp of New People's Army (NPA) rebels responsible for last New Year's attack on the exploration base camp of foreign-owned Sagittarius Mines Inc., a local military commander said.
Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Santiago, chief of the Army's 27th Infantry Brigade, said soldiers clashed with communist guerrillas at Sitio Lam-alis, Barangay Datal Blao in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat on December 6.
"Subversive documents were recovered by our troops after the rebels retreated. They had an undetermined number of wounded fighters as shown by traces of blood," he said.
Only Corporal Danny Rivera was wounded in the military's side, the military official added.
Santiago said the captured NPA rebel stronghold was difficult to access and isolated from civilian communities.
He claimed that aside from attacking the exploration base camp of Sagittarius on January 1, 2008, the communist rebels allegedly stole farm animals from the area.
The NPA, classified by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, has been known to infest the mountains of Columbio, Tampakan in South Cotabato and Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, towns that straddle the mines development site of Sagittarius.
Communist rebels, after the New Year's Day attack that left P12 million worth of facilities destroyed, have warned Sagittarius to brace for future attacks.
Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines, said the raid was to punish the mining firm for "land grabbing, plunder and environmental destruction in response to the people's longstanding demand to stop the firm's operations in the area."
He said that mining operations in Tampakan have been "vigorously opposed" by the people since the 1990s when these were being conducted by the Western Mining Corporation Philippines. (BSS)
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