NPA rebels seize 2 cops, soldier in southern Philippines; army commander wounded in clash

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 22, 2009) – An army commander was injured after his unit clashed Friday with communist rebels who seized two police officers and soldier in Compostela Valley province in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said Colonel Roberto Ancan, commander of 25th Infantry Battalion, was shot by New People’s Army rebels as his unit tried to rescue the police officers in Monkayo town.

“Colonel Ancan is wounded in the fighting and was rushed to the hospital. He was shot in the shoulder. He is okay. Pursuit operation is going on,” Captain Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel, a spokeswoman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.

She said the rebels seized the police officers and soldier on a village called Pasian.

“There two police officers were abducted at a rebel checkpoint in Pasian and we are still awaiting more details about the abduction of our soldier, but he is now being held by the NPA,” Manuel said.
Major General Reynaldo Mapagu, the division commander, has ordered troops to pursue the rebels.

“The NPAs are certainly demoralized and defeated that is why they have to resort to kidnapping and eventually use their victims as shield and project the image of a Good Samaritan,” he said.

The news of abduction came barely two weeks after rebels freed a captured government soldier in Compostela Valley, where security forces are battling the NPA.

The NPA said it freed the soldier, Private First Class Ronnie Trinidad, on humanitarian grounds. Rebels captured Trinidad, who belongs to the 66th Infantry Battalion, on April 28 at a checkpoint in the village of Pagsabangan in New Bataan town.

Trinidad was seized while on his way to barracks with another soldier, Corporal Japhet Lavid, who had escaped from rebels.

The NPA said it released after the soldier’s family and other groups appealed for his liberty.

The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a secessionist war in the country. Peace talks between Manila and the CPP-NPA collapsed in 2004 after both sides failed to sign an agreement to end more than four decades of bloody fighting. (Mindanao Examiner)

Troops try to stop solidarity mission in Mindanao, says human rights group

Photo released by the Exodus for Justice and Peace show army soldiers and policemen speak to representatives of the International Solidarity Mission and Exodus of Justice and Peace on Saturday, May 16, 2009 in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao where they held a dialogue on human rights and medical mission for poor villagers. The ISM and EJP say the soldiers tried, but failed to stop them from their solidarity mission, an accusation denied by the military. (Mindanao Examiner)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 16, 2009) – Government troops battling communist rebels in the southern Philippines have tried, but failed to stop a human rights and medical mission in Compostela Valley province.

Soldiers allegedly told the International Solidarity Mission and the Exodus for Justice and Peace to leave the province after they failed to coordinate their activity with the military.

The two groups also held a medical mission Friday and Saturday in the town of Monkayo where they held a dialogue on human rights. The International Solidarity Mission (ISM) was composed of foreign and national delegates led by Rep. Rafael Mariano.

“At around 5 p.m. Friday, eight members of the 28th Infantry Battalion arrived and asked the group to leave and insisting that we failed to coordinate with the military. Rep. Mariano and the EJP talked with the soldiers and an hour later they left. The same group of soldiers again arrived 12 noon today,” the organizers said in a statement.

The ISM has been conducting a dialogue in Mindanao as part of its mission dubbed as “A Journey of Solidarity in Defense of the People Resisting Oppression in Southern Mindanao.”

The group has been visiting areas of armed conflict to probe the effects of the government's counter-insurgency campaign among the locals and the rampant violations by the military of their human rights, especially in Compostela Valley, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato and North Cotabato provinces.

But an army commander, Col. Robert Ancan, denied the allegations and said soldiers and policemen were only guarding the area from lawless elements. “The soldiers were members of the 25th Infantry Battalion deployed to protect the civilians and the solidarity mission from possible attacks or harassment by rebels,” Ancan told the Mindanao Examiner.

A village chief, Franco Tito, said he was unaware of the report and the ISM and EJP have not told him anything about the soldiers. He said the soldiers were deployed to secure the area.

“The dialogue and the medical mission were successful. Soldiers and those from the ISM and EJP even posed for posterity pictures with us. I did not notice anything unusual and the outcome of the solidarity mission was successful.”

“We thanked the military for securing the area and we thanked also the ISM and EJP for the medical mission – five hundred people were given free medical attention and medicines,” Tito said in a separate interview.

Capt. Rosa Maria Crsitina Manuel, a regional army spokeswoman, said they did not interfere with the activity of the ISM and EJP. “We are not interfering with the activities of the ISM and EJP,” she said.

Compostela Valley is a known stronghold of the New People’s Army which has been fighting four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)