New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas inflicted hard blows recently to Marcos’ fascist troops wiping out at least a dozen fascist soldiers. This came as the fascist Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) began another wave of brutal counterrevolutionary armed offensives across several provinces.
The Red fighters, however, put this fascist offensives to shame as it responded with its own armed actions and defense of its ranks and the people and communities.
The most recent of these guerrilla actions happened in Albay province, August 21, when NPA guerrillas under the Santos Binamera Command ambushed a 16-person fascist squad of Charlie Company, 49th IB, which had tried to encircle an NPA guerrilla unit. Three fascist troops were killed and one wounded.
According Florante Orbia, spokesperson of the Binamera Command, the guerrillas were able to take the quick offensive and initiative because of the information provided and the support of the masses.
On August 12, three soldiers, including Unit leader Capt. Marky John Alberto of the 203rd IBde 1st Scout Ranger Regiment, were killed in that day’s second encounter between the NPA-Mindoro (Lucio de Guzman Command) and enemy troops in Barangay Lantuyang 2, Baco, Oriental Mindoro. Three other fascist soldiers were wounded. Days earlier, on August 9, the NPA successfully repelled an attacking enemy unit and killed a 203rd IBde soldier in Barangay Mangangan 2, Baco. According to reports: The NPA unit, assisted by the masses in the area, was maneuvering to counter-encircle a number of columns of enemy combat troops. Along their route, they chanced upon a unit of tired enemy soldiers. The NPA unit took the initiative to strike in order to break through the enemy’s encirclement. After a brief exchange, the NPA unit disengaged and safely withdrew from the battle site.
On August 21, the NPA Domingo Erlano Command under the Central Luzon Regional Operational Command repelled an attack of the 91st IB, in Sityo Aguses, Barangay Matawe, Dingalan, Aurora province. One fascist soldier was wounded. The AFP fascists have for months been undertaking counterrevolutionary operations in search of the guerrillas in the area in order to destroy them. The fascists have “hamletted” villages in the province, imposed population control, food blockades and committed countless brutalities and abuses against the people. In one part of the report of the NPA Command, it said the AFP promotes prostitution especially during the “Balikatan” exercises in the province. Local village women were transported to US warships docked along the bay to “service” US imperialist troops.
Last August 23, the fascist AFP reported one soldier killed-in-action, and another wounded in clashes with the guerrillas in Tapaz town, Capiz province in Panay island. Earlier, on July 19, the NPA-Central Panay (Jose Percival Estocada Jr Command) thwarted the 12th IB’s attack on one of its units at the boundary of Barangay Artuz and Barangay Apero in Tapaz.
On August 2, in Quezon province, a unit of the NPA-Quezon (Apolonio Mendoza Command) harassed the 85th IB and fired shots at its newly-built military camp in Barangay Cogorin Ibaba, Lopez. The guerrilla action was a way of holding accountable the bloodthirsty battalion for its crimes and to give justice to their peasant victims. On the same day, after a clash with a guerrilla unit in Tagkawayan town, the 201st Ibde mounted an indiscriminate aerial shelling and strafing in the village and in Labo town, Camarines Norte province.
Cleo del Mundo, spokesperson of the AMC-NPA-Quezon, stressed that the revolutionary movement and tradition are already deeply rooted in the peasant masses and cannot be uprooted by any counterrevolutionary scheme nor propaganda on neutralizing the People’s Army and the people’s revolutionary resistance.