Two rebels, 1 soldier killed in new clashes in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 22, 2009) – Two communist rebels and a government soldier were killed in separate fighting Sunday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Lt. Col. Roland Bautista, spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said troops killed two New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in a clash in Davao del Norte’s Talaingod town.

He said there were no military casualties in the fighting and soldiers captured two automatic rifles left behind by fleeing rebels. Soldiers also recovered the bodies of the slain rebels in Dagohoy village where the fighting broke out.

“Two NPA rebels were killed and their bodies recovered by the troops,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

Fighting also erupted in Panabo City, also in Davao del Norte, after NPA rebels ambushed a military truck in the village of Dalisay, killing one soldier and wounding at least three more infantrymen.

The military said rebel forces detonated a landmine as the patrol was passing the village on their way to Davao City.

Army Capt. Rosa Manuel said the rebels violated the international ban of the use of landmines. She said troops also recovered more unexploded mines in the area.

The rebels said that command-detonated land mines are legitimate offensive and defensive weapons they employed in the course of the people’s war against the military.

Early this month, the military said it killed seven NPA rebels in fierce fighting in North Cotabato's Tulunan town, scene of bloody clashes in recent months between the two groups.

But rebel leaders denied the reported casualties and branded the military report as propaganda.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, has been fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.

Rebel leaders broke off peace talks with the Arroyo government in 2004 after the United States listed the NPA, including the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad on Manila's prodding.

The NPA vowed to intensify attacks against police and military targets in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)

NPA Rebel Killed In Mindanao Clash

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 26, 2008) – Government troops clashed with Philippine communist rebels on Wednesday, killing one gunman in the southern island of Mindanao, an army spokesman said.

Lt. Col. Roland Bautista, of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said the fighting erupted in the village of Sibulan in Toril district in the outskirts of Davao City.

“Operating troops encountered the rebels and a firefight ensued that resulted to the killing of one NPA rebel,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

Bautista was referring to the New People’s Army, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, which is waging a secessionist war the past four decades.

‘There were no reports of military casualties and anti-insurgency operation is going on,” he said.

Government forces are still searching for Army Lt. Vicente Cammayo, who was captured Nov. 19 by rebel forces after a firefight in Monkayo town in Compostela Valley province.

The NPA admitted holding Cammayo, commander of the Special Forces, as prisoner of war and warned that any military rescue operation would put the officer's life in peril.

The rebels said Cammayo is being interrogated for possible human rights violations and other crimes related to operations of the Special Forces in Mindanao.

Aris Francisco, spokesman of the NPA's Alejandro Lanaja Command, accused the 3rd Special Forces Battalion to which Cammayo's unit belongs, as responsible for the series of violations to human rights, protocols of war and international humanitarian law in Compostela Valley province.

Francisco said the Special Forces masterminded the June bombing in Nabunturan town that wounded several innocent civilians. He also tagged Special Forces members as behind the brutal murder in June of a peasant leader Noli Llanos in Nabunturan's Mipangi village, where rebels killed three government soldiers; and also the killing of farmer Diego Encarnacion in the village of Linda in Nabunturan town in July. Both farmers were accused by the military as NPA supporters.

The military denied all accusations against the. (Mindanao Examiner)