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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Wednesday, May 3, 2017
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ILOILO City – Philippine Army troops swiftly repelled a band of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels that tried to attack the 82nd Infantry Battalion’s (82IB) detachment in Barangay Igcabugao, Igbaras, Iloilo.
Soldiers spotted around 10 rebels slowly moving towards the Army detachment.
“Our men quickly fired an M203 grenade launcher against the enemies on Sunday,” said Lieutenant Colonel Vener Morga, commander of the 82IB.
The rebels returned fire, said Morga, but the firefight with the government troops lasted only for some two minutes. The insurgents withdrew from the area past 12:30 a.m.
According to Morga, the rebels belonged to the Southern Front Committee of the NPA in Panay Island.
He believed his men wounded some of the rebels, citing bloodstains the insurgents left.
The Charlie Company of the 82IB was tasked to secure a hydroelectric power plant in Barangay Igcabugao.
In 2014 rebels torched a heavy equipment in the barangay, said Morga.
On Saturday around 11:55 p.m., rebels fired guns at an Army detachment in Barangay Igtalongon, Igbaras.
Morga said the 82IB was on alert status and waging offensives against the rebels. He recently dismissed the NPA’s recruitment activities in Panay Island as reflective of the rebels’ diminishing ranks.
“It has to recruit more because many members have left after realizing the futility of their cause. For 48 years they fooled the people with their false propaganda,” said Morga.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Panay regional committee confirmed the recruitment in a statement released to mark the recent 48th anniversary of the NPA, its armed wing.
The recruitment was very public, with wall graffiti and streamers urging the youth to join the revolutionary movement displayed in mostly the hinterlands of Iloilo and Capiz.
According to the CPP Panay regional committee, “NPA-Panay units have widened their areas of operation and maintained their strongholds. They reached out to the wider mass base of farmers and peasants.”
It also claimed a surge in the number of youths joining the revolutionary movement as full-time NPA fighters.
But according to Lieutenant Colonel Leonardo Peña, commanding officer of the Army’s 61st Infantry Battalion, people were not buying the NPA’s solution to poverty – armed revolution.
“In reality marami na, especially sa mga educated Filipinos, ang naniniwala na hindi talaga armadong rebolusyon ang solusyun kundi pagkakaisa para mapa-uswag ang ating bansa,” said Peña./PN
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