NPA Red fighters dealt severe blows to the fascist AFP’s 11th Infantry Battallion wiping out at least 5 of its troops after repelling its attacks on the guerrillas and the peasant masses.

The battles occurred in Barangay Santo Nino, Tanjay City, Negros Oriental February 15 when fascist troops swooped down on the village and attacked while a unit of the Rachelle Mae Palang Command-New People’s Army (RMPC-NPA) was looking into the problems of the peasant masses in that village.

Three encounters took place early that morning, and in all the successive battles, the guerrillas were able to seize the initiative in the fighting leaving the fascist enemy with their casualties and wounded as the NPA unit safely withdrew without any scratch.

NPA-Southeast Negros spokesperson Comrade Estrella Banagbanag said the defeat suffered by enemy troops was a slap in the faces of the fascist AFP-Philippine Army commands (11th IB, 302nd Infrantry Brigade) in the region, which continue to harbor illusions they could defeat the revolutionary movement.

“As long as the peasant and working masses are exploited and oppressed, the toiling masses’ army will continue to forge its strength,” Banagbanag stressed. Despite the relentless fascist militarization across the island of Negros, Banagbanag said the NPA remains steadfast in building Red political power.

In related reports, the NPA also meted punishments to enemy intelligence assets. Last February 17, the Romeo Nanta Command-NPA, South Central Negros Guerrilla Front conducted a punitive action against Rey Norquiana, an intel asset of the 94th IB, in Sitio Solbud, Barangay Santol, Binalbagan. Norquiana had long served as an asset to the fascist military in the town and was one of the founders of the intel network in the village of Santol.

On February 28, special operations units of the Roselyn Jean Pelle Command-New People’s Army (RJPC-NPA, Negros Occidental) implemented the standing order of the people’s court on two armed military intelligence assets in Sitio Biga and Sitio Malasaging both in Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, Negros Occidental.

Those meted punishments were Eddie Catipay, a rabid intelligence asset of the fascist AFP in the village, and, Jerry Lapus, who was responsible for the death of two Red fighters and one farmer who was tending a nearby rice field after an encounter in Sitio Mansulao, Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City on February 21, 2024. The asset tipped the fascist troops of the presence of the guerrillas resulting in the encounter. The guerrillas also confiscated two .45 caliber and .357 pistols with ammunition.

The martyred revolutionaries during that encounter were Emarie “Ka Janine” Pastidio and Joshua “Ka George” Sultan, and farmer Jose Caramihan.