THE New People's Army (NPA) admitted that its members were responsible in the recent series of attacks in some areas in Davao Oriental province.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesperson of the Regional Operation Command, NPA in Southern Mindanao, said in a statement that their members under the 6th Pulang Bagani Company ambushed a platoon of the Army’s 28th Infantry Battalion in Purok Kinawasan, Barangay San Isidro in Lupon, Davao Oriental on April 26.

Sanchez said that for two hours after the ambush, the soldiers allegedly carried out the first round of artillery strike that destroyed houses and farms in San Isidro and Likop in adjacent Mati City. Some 50 families were forced to evacuate.

The Comval-Davao Gulf Sub-Regional Command, meanwhile, launched on April 28 an action against the Army’s 28th Infantry Battalion and 72nd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Marayag in Lupon town, and mounted a mobile checkpoint for several hours along the Compostela Valley-Davao Oriental national highway.