NPA Rebels Accuse Soldiers As Behind Blast In Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 4, 2008) – Philippine communist rebels on Friday accused government soldiers as behind a recent grenade attack that killed three people in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao.

Rigoberto Sanchez, a spokesman for the New People’s Army, said government intelligence agents were behind the attack Thursday that also wounded at least a dozen civilians.

The Philippine Army said rebels were behind the attack that targeted motorcycle taxi drivers who were suspected by the NPA as government spies.

"It was the handiwork of the New People's Army rebels,” said Captain Michael Aquino, of the 10th Infantry Division. “We have reports saying that the attack targeted the 'habal-habal' drivers in the area because the NPA suspected them as government spies."

Sanchez denied the allegations. “There is no tinge of truth to this. The enemy is just manufacturing stories to divert attention from the successive and successful tactical offensives by the NPA. The revolutionary forces condemn this criminal attack against civilians,” he said.

The NPA also tagged military agents as behind the murder of a Bagobo tribal chieftain Dominador Diarog, in Davao City, in April this year. Sanchez said the NPA has stepped up attacks on police and military targets in retaliation to widespread human rights violations among other crimes and repression of civilians in Mindanao.

"The series of tactical offensives are meant to punish the Arroyo regime for its despicable crimes of large-scale corruption, imperialist plunder and fascist atrocities on the people," he said.

On Thursday, dozens of insurgents on raided a police base in Banaybanay town in Davao Oriental province and carted away over a dozen weapons, mostly automatic rifles and ammunition. Last week, insurgents also raided a police station in Surigao del Norte's Dapa town.

The NPA is fighting the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. Rebel leaders broke off peace talk with the Arroyo government in 2004 after accusing Manila of reneging on its commitment to free all political prisoners and to put a stop to political killings, among others. (Mindanao Examiner)