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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
5 rebels killed in Surigao clash
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- At least five communist insurgents were killed and a policeman was wounded in fierce fighting Tuesday in the town of San Agustin in Surigao del Sur province in the southern Philippines, military and police reports said.
It said the fighting was triggered by an attack on a police station. The clash occurred shortly before noontime when dozens of New People's Army (NPA) members tried but failed to capture the police base. Policemen fought the attackers until they fled.
Reports said at least five of the attackers were killed. Troops in the town were alerted by the attack and that security forces were pursuing the rebels. "One of our policemen was shot and wounded by rebels in the attack," said Chief Superintendent Antonio Nanas, the regional police chief.
Nanas said five policemen manning the station fought off the attackers for more than one hour until the rebels retreated. "There were only five (policemen) defending the police station. They were outnumbered, but not outfought," he said. "There is a joint police and military operation in the town. The rebels left behind a dangerous trail of land mine explosives and we are trying to recover them all."
Last week, the military said 10 rebels were killed in clashes in Kapalong town in Davao del Norte province, but the NPA said only one of its fighters was slain.
Sporadic clashes continued in the countryside when government peace talks with the rebels collapsed in 2004 after the United States and European Union included the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, its political wing, and the NPA to their lists of foreign terrorist organization on Manila's prodding.
President Arroyo has ordered the military to crush the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP-NDF, and set aside one billion pesos for the military to help fight insurgency and terrorism.
The rebels branded as pretentious bragging Arroyo's release of additional P1 billion to crush communist insurgency in the country.
"The additional P1 billion allocations to fund President Gloria Arroyo's pipe dream of crushing the New People's Army in two years is nothing but a display of fascist braggadocio typical of swaggering generals and dictators. It reveals the depths of Arroyo's ignorance of the dynamics of revolution and the heights of her counter-revolutionary fantasy, which proves to be a costly yet deadly misadventure," Rubi del Mundo, a spokesman for the NDF in Mindanao, said.
Arroyo last week ordered the release of the money to help the military defeat the NPA in two years.
She also ordered security forces to protect businessmen from NPA extortion and told authorities to investigate and file criminal charges against those who are supporting the rebels. Traders have complained the rebels were extorting "revolutionary" taxes from them and those who refused to pay are threatened with harm.
"Arroyo is committing the same mistakes of past Philippine presidents: raising the ante for a militarist strategy under conditions of extreme poverty, social discontent and political polarization favors the revolutionary movement more than anything else," said Del Mundo. "Martial Law and recycled presidential proclamations of "all-out-wars" thereafter failed to halt the advance of the revolutionary movement, much less defeat it."
Del Mundo said the new anti-insurgency funding would only breed more corruption in the military and the police.
"The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police generals are having a heyday under an embattled Arroyo regime whose political survival they almost exclusively determine on a daily basis. With billions of pesos at their disposal, corruption at the highest level of the reactionary regime and police officers corps shall continue without letup."
The NPA is fighting the past three decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. The NPA boasts of more than 10,000 armed regulars, but the military estimates the number at around 7,500. (Sunnex)
(August 16, 2006 issue)
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