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Monday, November 21, 2005
9 soldiers killed; army alert up
CEBU CITY -- The Central Command (Centcom) in Central Visayas is on red alert following the rebel attack on a truckload of government troops in a town in Iloilo Province.
At least nine Army soldiers and one police officer were killed and 25 others wounded in separate clashes with communist rebels, the military said Sunday.
New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas detonated a land mine late Saturday under a truck carrying troops returning to base outside Calinog town, in Iloilo Province, killing nine, said Army spokesman Major Bartolome Bacarro.
An ensuing firefight lasted about an hour before the rebels withdrew.
There were an undetermined number of casualties on the rebel side, Bacarro said.
Centcom press relations officer Colonel Jefferson Omandam said that Panay island, where Calinog is located, covers a huge area and in the process moving troops and supplies, the ambush happened.
Omandam acknowledged, in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu Sunday, that since communist rebels and guerrillas can easily mingle with civilians, going after them can prove difficult and challenging.
That is why a national ID system is needed, he said.
The Centcom official also hopes the anti-terrorism bill, which is among the Arroyo administration's priorities, will be passed soon.
Omandam noted that a resurgence in the activities of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA.
The CPP had announced an all-out war against the government, Omandam said.
Superintendent Ronald Roderos, deputy chief for operation of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, said intelligence operation and close coordination with local officials and residents have always been the priority in the campaign against the insurgents.
Insurgency in the mid-north area in Cebu is being handled by the military, while the Regional Mobile Group is taking care of the southern part of the province.
Last October 15, three soldiers from the 78th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army were killed when they were attacked in their detachment in Barangay Sumon, Tuburan town.
Some residents abandoned their homes for fear of reprisals from the military.
Major Lyndon Sollesta, spokesman of the 3rd Infantry Division, said about 40 guerrillas were involved in the attack against soldiers from the 47th Infantry Battalion, who were returning to base for supplies for an ongoing operation against the rebels in the area in Iloilo.
Sollesta said troops were in pursuit of the guerrillas Sunday.
In the northern town of Tiaong in Quezon province, guerrillas ambushed a group of police officers, killing one and wounding three before dawn Sunday.
A day earlier outside Sampaloc, also in Quezon, two soldiers were wounded in a clash with the rebels, the military said.
The rebels, who are on US and European lists of terrorist organizations, have been waging a rebellion in the Philippines since the late 1960s.
They suspended Norwegian-brokered talks with the government last year, saying Philippine officials had done little to try to get the group removed from the terrorist blacklists.
The rebels have vowed to intensify attacks in the hope of further undermining President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has been grappling for months with her worst-ever political crisis. (AP/AIV/Sunnex)
(November 21, 2005 issue)
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