ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 10 Jul) Southern Philippine military officials on Monday announced that soldiers exhumed at least 10 skeletal remains believed victims of summary executions by communist insurgents in the mountain province of Misamis Oriental.
Officials said the remains were exhumed from 5 shallow graves that troops discovered in the village of Kibanban in the town of Balingasag where fighting between military and rebel forces erupted at the weekend, leaving one soldier dead.
They said soldiers were still searching for more graves in the area, a known stronghold of the New People's Army, the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political arm the National Democratic Front (NDF).
"The skeletal remains are believed to be victims of summary executions by the communist terrorists. It is believed that other shallow graves are still at the area," Captain Ritche Pabilonia, a spokesman for the Southern Command, said in a report.
A group of government forensic experts are arriving this week in the province to try to identify the remains and the cause of their deaths. A military report said one skeletal remains still had a yellow jacket, another had underwear, and the other a jute sack covered its skull.
The spokesman did not say how the soldiers discover the graves or who led them to the sites.
Government soldiers killed at least 7 communist insurgents in two days fierce fighting in Compostela Valley province in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Sunday.
The weekend fighting came barely a week after soldiers and rebels clashed in Compostela Valley province that killed 7 NPA members.
Last month, security forces occupied a huge jungle encampment of the NPA after days of fighting the village of Busdi in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon province near Misamis Oriental.
Fighting in the countryside have escalated after peace talks between communist rebels and the government collapsed in 2004 after the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front pulled out from the negotiations because of its inclusion to the terror lists of the United States and the European Union on Manila's prodding.
Rebels demanded that President Gloria Arroyo asks the United States and the European Union to strike them off from the terror lists before they resume peace talks. Manila rejected the demand and suspended safety and immunity guarantee for rebel peace negotiators following the collapse of the talks.
President Arroyo has ordered the military to crush the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP-NDF, and set aside one billion pesos for the military to help fight insurgency and terrorism.
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