Multiple encounters between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) have been reported in the past couple of weeks from all over the Philippines indicating the continuing growth of the revolutionary armed forces.

The NPA-Northern Negros (Roselyn Jean Pelle Command) launched a surprise raid on the home of despotic landlord Clint Aranas in Toboso, Negros Oriental on September 22. Aranas, who also held high positions in the government, and his family are notorious for exploiting farmers, grabbing their lands and harassing them using his armed goons. The Red fighters seized an M4, a Micro Galil, and a KG9 submachine gun from Aranas’s office.

Another unit of the same command, on September 29, raided the house of and disarmed a drug pusher in Escalante, Negros Occidental. The NPA confiscated from Reymart Marquiz a baby M16, a .45 pistol and an Ingram submachine gun, together with corresponding magazines and more than a hundred ammunition.

NPA-Northern Negros spokesperson Ka Cecil Estrella said Marquiz was disarmed because he used the firearms to facilitate his illegal business. Residents have repeatedly complained about the sale and rampant use of illegal drugs in the area.

In another village in Escalante, on September 29, an NPA unit launched a harassment operation against patrolling troops of the CAFGU, a paramilitary unit assisting the AFP, and the 79th IB. The NPA Command reports that one CAFGU  was killed and two AFP soldiers wounded. Ka Cecil Estrella said the unit safely withdrew after the armed action. “The military and CAFGU continued firing for another hour from paranoia and desperation to show the public that an encounter occurred.”

Meanwhile, on September 27, in San Jose de Buan, Samar, an NPA-Western Samar (Arnulfo Ortiz Command) unit clashed in two encounters with 8th Infantry Division soldiers who had been conducting a focused military operation against the NPA unit. NPA spokesperson Ka Tirado Dagohoy reported that the soldiers of the 801st IB were terrorizing residents in the area and accusing people of harbouring the guerillas.

In the first encounter, a soldier was killed. The second encounter, occurring an hour later,  one 8th ID soldier was killed and two others wounded.

In the southernmost part of the country, in T’boli, South Cotabato, the NPA-South Cotabato foiled successive attacks by the 105th IB on September 14 and 15. In four encounters, the Red army safely maneuvered and struck the fascist troops, resulting in the death of five soldiers and injuries to at least seven.

The NPA’s defence against the regime’s military attacks, the implementation of its anti-drug policy as well as other political activities of the revolutionary armed forces is in accordance with the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution. Section III, Our Specific Program, in the military field, point seven states: “Disarm and dismantle military and police guards as well as private groups of criminal syndicates and counterrevolutionaries, and suppress the drug trade, gambling, piracy, banditry and other forms of criminality that prey on the people.”