NPA launches a series of tactical offensive

NPA guerrillas struck on June 11 on the island of Bohol, in the central part of the Philippines; and again on June 15 in Davao City, in the large southern island of Mindanao.

84 fire-arms were seized by the NPA when it raided the headquarters of the 7th Regional Mobile Group-Combat Support Company in Barangay Rizal, Batuan, Bohol, a province in central Philippines. This is the largest number of arms seized by the NPA in a tactical offensive since the Second Great Rectification Movement was launched in 1992 by the Philippine revolutionary movement.

The raid was successfully launched on the morning of June 11 without the NPA firing a single shot. It was conducted by Red fighters led by the NPA Regional Operational Command in Central Visayas.

The 7th Regional Mobile Police is the leading PNP unit waging suppression campaigns against the people and the revolutionary movement in Central Visayas and is responsible for numerous violations of human rights. In a statement, the NPA said it conducted the raid in response to requests from the people of Barangay Rizal that punishment be meted out to the abusive police unit.

The successful tactical offensive was the fruit of careful investigation and planning, both of which were made possible only through the deep and wide support enjoyed by the NPA from the people in the locality. In the process of investigating, the NPA learned that the enemy troopers were positioned atop and below a mountain.

Firing and maneuvering would not have been an appropriate tactic. The NPA command decided to conduct a commando raid by stratagem and to use a superior force.

The tactical offensive was daringly executed. More than a hundred Red fighters arrived at the detachment at exactly 6:56 a.m. aboard vans with the markings of the Department of the Interior and Local Government of the reactionary state, posing as PNP troopers bringing in a captured guerrilla. This enabled the Red fighters to enter the camp. Also alighting from the van was a guerrilla in a barong tagalog (traditional formal shirt), accompanied by three smartly dressed women—all looking like government officials. Another guerrilla was in a police major’s uniform, and he was saluted by the enemy policemen as the NPA group entered the building.

Once inside, the guerrillas drew their guns and swiftly disarmed and held at bay the 36 policemen and trainees in the camp. A signal was raised, and in the wink of an eye about 100 Red fighters arrived to collect the arms, ammunition and other military equipment that was the objective of the raid.

All in all, when the NPA guerrillas withdrew, they carried away with them 84 high-powered and smaller caliber weapons, including M-16 and M-14 rifles, an M-60 machinegun and grenade launchers, a 60 mm mortar, assorted handguns, and lots of ammunition and various kinds of military equipment.

The tactical offensive lasted till 9:00 a.m. Before the Red fighters retreated, they were able to hold a mass meeting, conduct propaganda among the policemen and distribute leaflets explaining the political basis for the raid. Two captured policemen were immediately released after an intensive discussion with them.

The successful tactical offensive is proof of the correctness of one of the basic principles advocated by the Second Great Rectification Movement—that armed struggle would advance in stages on the basis of painstakingly expanding and deepening the mass base.

Even shame-faced police officials could do nothing but admit that the raid could not have been conducted without the cooperation of the people of Batuan. Because of extreme embarrassment, the PNP command in Central Visayas relieved the following day the detachment chief, Insp. Richard Caballero, along with the entire Combat Support Company.

The successful raid in Batuan serves as a resounding slap on the face of the Estrada regime, which has gone all-out to terrorize the people and the revolutionary movement with counter-revolutionary violence.

Earlier in the year, Bohol was in the news when a vice mayor defected to the revolutionary movement and joined the NPA in January. Several months after this, NPA guerrillas ambushed and killed a mayoral candidate; still later, they raided the town hall and the mayor’s residence in Batuan municipality.

All these incidents, plus the latest and much-publicized attack on the police headquarters, prompted media commentators to speculate that Bohol had become a major base of the NDFP in the Visayan islands or central part of the Philippines.

In the Davao city offensive, a force of about 100 red fighters, ambushed a Philippine Army (PA) patrol, killing six soldiers and wounding 12. The enemy rushed reinforcements to the ambush area in the city’s outskirts, including a helicopter gunship, and another day of firefights ensued before the guerrillas withdrew into the forest. Two red fighters, sad to say, lost their lives in the fighting.

The 100-strong NPA force was led by Commander Parago, who recently became well-known to the Philippine public as the commanding officer of the NPA unit that captured and held as prisoners of war (POWs) an army general and a captain some months ago. The two POWs—together with three other POWs, two police officers and a soldier captured in various parts of the country—were subsequently released by the NPA after the Estrada government was forced to give in to several demands made by the NDFP.

Five members of a private army and four soldiers were killed while three troopers were wounded in three separate tactical offensives by the NPA in Southern Tagalog this May and June.

Five security guards of Golden Country Farms Inc. (GCFI) were killed in an ambush by NPA guerrillas in Barangay Balansay, Mamburao, Mindoro Occidental on June 10. The security guards serve as a private army of Ricardo Quintos, the despotic landlord who owns the 7,000-hectare GCFI. Quintos and his guards are responsible for numerous killings, landgrabbing, intimidation and other abuses against the peasant masses of Mamburao. Two troopers were also killed when Red fighters ambushed soldiers of the 76 th IB along the highway in Barangay Walay, Padre Burgos, Quezon on May 25. The soldiers were aboard a Kennedy-type jeep when their vehicle hit a land mine planted by the guerrillas. Two other soldiers were wounded.

Meanwhile, NPA guerrillas raided this May a Philippine Army detachment in Sitio Ilayang Crossing, Barangay Sayao, Mogpog, Marinduque. The raid was one of the first tactical offensives of the NPA in the province.

Four elements of the Citizens’ Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and a soldier were killed in two separate ambuscades by the NPA in Compostela Valley this June. Three CAFGU who were part of a team on patrol were killed when they were ambushed by Red fighters in Barangay Libulon, Mabini town in Davao del Norte on the morning of June 27. Before this, a CAFGU member and a soldier were slain when Red fighters ambushed a composite unit of the Philippine Army and CAFGU conducting a patrol on June 1 in Laac town. An NPA blocking force also opened fired on the enemy’s troop reinforcements.

The NPA conducted three successive tactical offensives in Surigao del Sur this May. Red fighters attacked the 29th IB detachment in Doña Carmen town on May 23 and confiscated three M16s, three carbines and a handheld radio. Prior to this, the NPA raided the PICOP Resources Inc. factory in the nearby town of Bislig on May 19 and burned the company’s machinery. Seven days before the raid on the factory, NPA guerrillas had also ambushed in Bislig a group of men belonging to PICOP’s private army. A member of the PICOP security force died in the ambush.

PICOP, which owns a 195,000-hectare concession that straddles the borders of four provinces in Mindanao, is the biggest corporation in Asia that manufactures and exports plywood and paper products and engages in industrial tree farming.

The three tactical offensives were launched by the NPA to punish the corporation and the 29th IB for its brutal suppression of the rights of PICOP workers. In 1998, PICOP colluded with the 28th and 29th IBs to break the workers’ strike.

PICOP also used the Special Civilian Auxiliary Army that serves as its security force and private army and brought in hired killers.

NPA guerrillas overcame their defensive situation when their camp was encircled by enemy troops on the afternoon of June 16 in Barangay Dominga, Calinan, Davao City. Seven soldiers were killed when Red fighters fought against attacking elements of the "Alpha" Coy of the 73rd IB-Philippine Army. Six troopers were also wounded while another six sustained other injuries. In a statement, the Merardo Arce Command, the regional NPA unit in Southern Mindanao said that two Red fighters died instantly when the military opened fire upon discovering the NPA camp. After the first volley of fire, the NPA quickly seized a more favorable position and were able to launch a counter-offensive. This shocked the attacking troops’ commanding officer, 2Lt. Dominic Baluga, who ran and abandoned his men in the midst of the battle.

Throughout 1998, NPA guerrillas were active in various regions, islands and provinces of the country. The NPA has 81 guerrilla fronts in all strategic points of the archipelago. Some of the tactical offensives launched by the NPA in 1998 are the following :

On Samar, island in the Visayas, an NPA unit ambushed a jeepload of army troopers in Lavezares town, Northern Samar province, killing three soldiers, including a lieutenant. Almost simultaneously, not far from the ambush site, another NPA unit raided the PNP provincial mobile force headquarters, killing two policemen and wounding several others. The NPA suffered no casualties in the two offensives, while they confiscated a dozen weapons, including M-16 and M-14 rifles, an M-60 machinegun and assorted handguns.

Meanwhile, in the Bicol region—in the southern part of Luzon island—the NPA put out of action 10 enemy soldiers (seven killed, three wounded) and confiscated about 25 firearms (mostly M-16 rifles) in a series of tactical offensives from March to August.

In other provinces of Luzon island, a three-man NPA sparrow unit punished with death a policeman of the PNP mobile force company in Batangas province, afterwards confiscating his M-16 rifle and .45 caliber pistol. In the Mountain province—in the northern part of Luzon, an NPAS platoon ambushed a patrol of the enemy’s 54th Infantry Battalion, killing an officer and wounding two army corporals.

Down south, meanwhile, on Mindanao island, NPA guerrillas ambushed a jeepload of policemen in July, in Davao Oriental province. Killed in the attack were four policemen, including the police chief of Boston municipality in that province; five other policemen were wounded.

In April, also in Mindanao, NPA guerrillas punished with death a notorious rubber plantation administrator in Esperanza town, Agusan del Sur province. This criminal had long abused and victimized the peasants and farm workers in several barrios of Esperanza, and it came as no surprise that the masses in the area were elated when they received the news that the NPA had gotten rid of the hated administrator.

Red Salutes to the Mawab Four Martyrs

On August 2, 1999, the reactionary armed forces of the Estrada regime of the Philippines brutally tortured and then murdered four NPA fighters. As the people’s war in the Philippines advances the ruling classes are resorting to more brutal repression with each passing day.

Of the four fighters of the New People’s Army, Com. Ka PaKing was a responsible cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines and a worthy commander of the NPA in Mindanao. He led the rectification movement in his area of responsibility which within two years achieved outstanding victories in recovering lost ground and expanding to new areas.

The Mawab Four Massacre perpetrated by the Estrada regime shows the mortal fear and hatred of the enemy of the growing strength of the people’s revolutionary forces and its utter contempt for human rights. "People’s March" strongly condemns this dastardly attack and extends its red salutes to these fallen martyrs of the Philippines revolution. It conveys its deepest feelings of sympathy to the comrades and family members of these martyrs.

(From a Report received from the office of the NDFP)