BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Soldiers of the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion (79IB) overran a hideout of New People’s Army (NPA) insurgents in Sitio Tinibyangan, Barangay Minapasuk, Calatrava, Negros Occidental early yesterday morning.
The 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, Brigadier General Inocencio Pasaporte, said the 79IB responded to concerned citizens’ tip about the presence of armed individuals in their community.
The gun battle lasted for 15 minutes at around 6 a.m.,, and forced the NPA rebels to retreat.
The Army believed the armed group consisted of more than 10 rebels.
According to 1st Lieutenant Dansan Camua, civil-military operations officer of the 79IB, residents said the rebels were asking for food.
No government soldiers died or got injured, according to the 79IB. But it believed some rebels got wounded, citing “heavy bloodstains” along the insurgents’ retreat route.
Pasaporte believed the rebels were trying to regain their lost territory in northern Negros.
The NPA’s Northern Negros Front, which is part of the Komiteng Rehiyon-Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor, was declared dismantled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in April last year.
Those who figured and died in clashes with government troops in Manapla town and Silay City late last year and the latest in Calatrava were considered remnants of the dismantled front.
The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Both were deemed as terrorist organizations by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front (NDF) has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)