20 NPA rebels killed in Zambales clash

Twenty New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed and five police officers were seriously wounded Saturday in a bloody clash between government troops and some 70 rebels in the remote Aeta village of Maguisguis in Botolan, Zambales.

Senior Superintendent Wilson Victorio, Zambales police director, identified the wounded Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel as Senior Inspector Relly Arnedo, Inspector Donald Narvasa and police officers Andrew Angcaway, Eugenio Valdez and Pancho Doble, all of the Regional Mobile Group of the Zambales police.

Initial investigation showed that the clash broke out at 4 p.m. Saturday along a bumpy road in Maguisguis. Police said they were unable to recover the slain rebels’ bodies, which had been dragged from the site of the encounter by the retreating rebels.

Investigators also told The STAR that suspected NPA snipers fired on government troops trying to capture a makeshift NPA training camp Saturday.

The rebels had built a cluster of buildings that served as their quarters and training camp.

The rebel camp was discovered and overrun by soldiers of the 24th Infantry Battalion in East Maguisguis.

NPA rebels at the camp suffered a still undetermined number of casualties in the wake of an hour-long running gun battle with the soldiers.

Bloodstains were seen at the site of the encounter, but no government troopers were reported wounded or killed.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) spokesman Lt. Col. Preme Monta said the hastily abandoned camp is believed to be the base of the regional guerrilla unit of the Bataan-Zambales Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA led by a certain Ka Dasig.

The camp was equipped with 27 bunkers and a mess hall that could accommodate 70 people, he said. The soldiers spotted the rebel camp after being tipped off by civilians in the area.

Monta said personal belonging and sacks of rice and foodstuff hastily concealed by the rebels were also discovered.

This camp, he said, was meant to be the staging point of the rebels’ planned harassment operations on military detachments in the area.

Monta added that pursuit operations are still underway against the rebels in the Bataan towns of Samal, Orani and Hermosa and along the coastlines of Zambales, Pangasinan and Pampanga.

The Nolcom vowed to neutralize the NPA in its area of jurisdiction in battle or tire them to death.

"If we cannot get them by combat, they will die by dehydration and exhaustion," Nolcom chief Maj. Gen. Romeo Dominguez said, as soldiers combed the coastlines of the provinces of Bataan, Zambales, Pampanga and Nueva Ecija and battled NPA rebels "on a 24-hour basis."

"We will get them," Dominguez said, "by thirst or by hunger."

Six battalions from the Army’s 7th and 5th Infantry Divisions have been deployed to hunt down and neutralize the NPAs in Bataan, Pampanga, Zambales and Nueva Ecija.

In Tarlac City, CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal accused the Nolcom of "concocting" stories about the deaths of 15 NPA rebels in Sasmuan, Pampanga in an encounter there Friday.

"It’s a monstrous lie," Rosal said, insisting that the NPA’s Josepino Corpuz Command operating in Central Luzon is "verifying reports that at least two soldiers" of the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion and 73rd Reconnaissance Company were killed by rebels in Friday’s encounter.

Rosal said Amy 7th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Alberto Braganza is under "strict instructions" from Malacañang and the AFP hierarchy to come out with "a monstrous lie in (the government’s) desperation to boost the sagging morale of the soldiers."

He said "militarists" within President Arroyo’s Cabinet, led by Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, are "talking a lot about peace talks, but doing everything to hinder (the talks)."

The military counter-offensives against the NPA are hindering the peace talks’ progress, he said, citing the President’s threat to revoke the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Through JASIG, safe conduct passes were issued to about a hundred rebel leaders acting as consultants to the National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panel. Malacañang alleged that the rebel leaders have been misusing their safe conduct passes to consolidate and organize their ranks nationwide.

Because of this, Rosal said, the "exploratory talks" initiated by Speaker Jose de Venecia with Europe-based rebel leaders, including CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison in Amsterdam next week may turn out "fruitless."

Meanwhile, two more NPA rebels were slain in an encounter with Army Scout Rangers in Compostela Valley Saturday.

Reports sent to Camp Aguinaldo said troops of the 6th Scout Ranger Company were on combat patrol when they encountered a group of NPA rebels in Barangay Pagsabanga, New Bataan and engaged the rebels in a five-minute firefight.

The rebels were forced to withdraw at the height of the gunbattle, leaving behind their two unidentified comrades. Also recovered from the site of the clash was a hand grenade.

In another encounter, militiamen of the 7th Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) Active Auxiliary Company in North Cotabato engaged in a two-hour firefight 30 NPA rebels led by a certain Commander Bonson who had been setting up camp in Sitio Aguila, Barangay Cabantalan, Arakan, North Cotabato.

The gunbattle ended with the rebels fleeing the site of conflict. No casualties were reported on either side and a garand rifle with defaced serial numbers, various rounds of ammunition and an improvised landmine were recovered from the area.

AFP chief Gen. Narciso Abaya earlier admitted that the military has sustained losses at the hands of the NPA. He said that, as a result of these losses, the military will redeploy its forces from Central Mindanao to areas where the NPA is known to operate in the south and where military forces are spread too thin.

"Our forces are very thinly spread in the CTM (communist terrorist movement) areas and the reason for this is the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) problem in central Mindanao and the 90-day deadline given to the AFP for the neutralization of the Abu Sayyaf (kidnap group)," he said.

"As we are optimistic that the peace negotiation with the MILF will be on the right track," Abaya added, "we will be redeploying forces in CTM areas, especially in areas where our forces are thinly spread." He declined to say in which areas of Mindanao the troops will be redeployed. — James Managhaya, Artemio Dumalo, Bebot Sison Jr., Benjie Villa, Mike Frialde