ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 19 Jan) Security forces mounted fresh operation Thursday to flush out communist insurgents in the southern Philippine province of Misamis Oriental, blamed for the attack on government troops in Salay town, officials said.
"There is pursuit operation in the province. We are tracking down New People's Army rebels who were behind the attack on patrolling soldiers in Salay," Major Gamal Hayudini, a spokesman for the Southern Command, told the Zamboanga Journal.
He said two government soldiers were wounded in a clash with New People's Army members in the village of Ili-Ilihon in Misamis Oriental's Salay town on Tuesday.
He said an undetermined number of rebels were believed killed or wounded in the clash in Salay town.
"The rebels suffered a still (undetermined) number of casualties and latest military reports identied the attackers as members of the NPA's Front Committee 4B under Mar Lopez. Civilians in the province are helping (us) by providing the military with intelligence information," Hayudini said.
Last month, a senior NPA leader Bensar Menga, head of the group's Front Cara Committee, surrendered to the military in Zamboanga del Sur province.
Menga told the military that he surrendered to avail of the government amnesty program. Under the amnesty program called Balik-Baril, which means "Bring a Rifle Improve your Livelihood," the government pays as much as P25,000 ($470) for weapons surrendered by rebels, aside from at least P18,000 ($338) in initial aid.
Those who surrender also undergo livelihood training of their choice.
"There is pursuit operation in the province. We are tracking down New People's Army rebels who were behind the attack on patrolling soldiers in Salay," Major Gamal Hayudini, a spokesman for the Southern Command, told the Zamboanga Journal.
He said two government soldiers were wounded in a clash with New People's Army members in the village of Ili-Ilihon in Misamis Oriental's Salay town on Tuesday.
He said an undetermined number of rebels were believed killed or wounded in the clash in Salay town.
"The rebels suffered a still (undetermined) number of casualties and latest military reports identied the attackers as members of the NPA's Front Committee 4B under Mar Lopez. Civilians in the province are helping (us) by providing the military with intelligence information," Hayudini said.
Last month, a senior NPA leader Bensar Menga, head of the group's Front Cara Committee, surrendered to the military in Zamboanga del Sur province.
Menga told the military that he surrendered to avail of the government amnesty program. Under the amnesty program called Balik-Baril, which means "Bring a Rifle Improve your Livelihood," the government pays as much as P25,000 ($470) for weapons surrendered by rebels, aside from at least P18,000 ($338) in initial aid.
Those who surrender also undergo livelihood training of their choice.
Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon earlier ordered commanders to intensify the government's amnesty program to convince the rebels to abandon their armed struggle and return to the fold of the law.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is fighting the past three decades to topple the government and install a Maoist state in the country.
The United States and the European Union blacklisted them on Manila's prodding and have included them in the foreign terrorist lists and froze its assets abroad.
Peace talks between government and rebel leaders collapsed last year after the CPP-NDF insisted that President Gloria Arroyo asks the United States and the European Union to strike them off from the terror lists.
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