Troops Mount New Operation vs NPA Rebels In South RP

BUTUAN CITY (Juan Magtanggol / 25 Jul) Security forces on Tuesday mounted new operation against communist insurgents blamed for a roadside bomb attack that wounded 15 people in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said at least 15 civilians were wounded when the jeep they were riding in hit a landmine planted by the New People's Army (NPA) in in the town of Tago in Surigao del Sur province on Monday.

Col. Francisco Simbajon, a spokesman for the Army's 4th Infantry Division, said troops were tracking down the rebels. "We will get them sooner or later," he told the Zamboanga Journal.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) also condemned President Gloria Arroyo's endorsement of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan as "an open endorsement of the ruthless criminal acts perpetrated by her loyal fascist attack dog."

Arroyo endorsed Palparan in her State Of the Nation Address Monday before the joint session of Congress. The CPP accused Palparan of allegedly masterminding the killing of militant and progressive political leaders in Luzon.

Palparan denied the accusations.

Gregorio Rosal, CPP spokesperson, said: "Arroyo's all-out support for Palparan not only commends her favorite fascist's extra-judicial executions but also all the political killings and other war crimes being committed with impunity by her fascist generals and death squads in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police, all under the direction of her Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security."

"The Filipino people hold Gloria Arroyo responsible for the rampant ruthless political killings, abductions, torture and other violations of civil liberties and human rights of unarmed activists and innocent people," Rosal said in a statement.

Fighting in the countryside have escalated after peace talks between communist rebels and the government collapsed in 2004 after the CPP 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 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.

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.