NPA rebel, militia killed in new clashes in Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 11, 2008) – Government soldiers killed a communist rebel in a clashed in Compostela Valley province in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Tuesday.

The fighting, which broke out in the town of Laak on Monday afternoon, also left one government militia dead, said Lt. Col. Kurt Decapia, Public Affairs Chief of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.

He said the fighting erupted after patrolling troops spotted a group of New People’s Army rebels in the village of New Bethlehem. He said troops also recovered a B40 anti-tank rocket and three automatic rifles from fleeing rebels.

“It is believed that the rebel group suffered heavy casualties as indicated by the bloodstains along the enemy’s route of withdrawal,” Decapia said.

Army Maj. Gen. Jogy Leo Fojas, division commander, said the offensive against the NPA will not stop until the rebel group is neutralized. “Our troops will not get tired of running after the NPA bandits,” he said.

The NPA is believed to be holding 1Lt. Vicente Camayo, a member of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion, who went missing after a fierce firefight in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town on Friday that left two army soldiers and a government militia dead.

“We will never stop until we get hold of Camayo and return him to his loved ones,” Fojas said.

The NPA did not say whether it has captured Camayo or nor, but a rebel spokesman, Aris Francisco, confirmed that his group clashed with the military and that they were able to seize an M60 machine gun and two M16 and one M14 automatic rifles from the fighting in Monkayo town.

“The NPA tactical offensive serves as a punitive action against the 3rd Special Forces Battalion, who had been responsible for the series of violations to human rights, protocols of war and international humanitarian law in Compostela Valley,” he said.

Francisco also accused the Special Forces of masterminding the June bombing in Nabunturan town that wounded several civilians. “The bombing was a desperate and fascist attack in response to the sparrow operations of the NPA which killed two of their soldiers at that time,” he said.

The NPA 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 NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting the government the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)

Family Of Abducted Man In South RP Appeals For His Safe Release

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 28, 2008) – Unidentified gunmen abducted a young father in front of his wife and son in the southern Philippine province of Compostela Valley, where communist insurgents are actively operating, police said Sunday.

Police said the armed men seized Jay Larobes at around 11 a.m. Saturday in the village of Mipangi in Nabunturan town. His family said the gunmen dragged the victim and forced him inside a vehicle and sped away.

Larobes was driving his motorcycle with his wife and son when the gunmen blocked their path and snatched him, police said.

No group claimed responsibility for the abduction and the victim’s family would not say more about Larobes’ background or whether he is a political activist or not. But his family appealed for his safe release.

Previous disappearances of activists had been largely blamed to the military. (Romy Bwaga)

Police File Charges Vs Grenade Thrower In Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 16, 2008) – Philippine police filed criminal charges against a man linked to a grenade attack that killed three people in the southern province of Compostela Valley.

Police tagged Joel Avila, a tricycle driver, as behind the July 3 attack that also wounded 12 people in Nabunturan town. It said witnesses positively identified Avila as the attacker.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said it filed criminal charges on Tuesday, but Avila remains at-large and that policemen were tracking him down. It said the attack was connected to a quarrel between two groups of tricycle drivers operating in the town.

The Philippine military earlier implicated the New People’s Army rebels as behind the grenade attack. “It was the handiwork of the New People's Army rebels,” Captain Michael Aquino, of the 10th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner. "We have reports saying that the attack targeted the 'habal-habal' drivers in the area because the NPA suspected them as government spies."

Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman, denied involvement of the NPA in the blast. “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 in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

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. (Romy Bwaga)

NPA Rebels Raid Military Posts In South RP

COMPOSTELA VALLEY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 8, 2008) – Communist insurgents raided a military detachment in the southern Filipino province of Compostela Valley and carted away at least 14 automatic weapons.

The insurgents, numbering more than 30, also torched several bunkers manned by government militias in the village of Linda in Nabunturan town after disarming three militias late Saturday afternoon.

The militias were under the control of the local army unit in the town. The New People’s Army insurgents escaped after the raid. (Romy Bwaga)

P90 M Bond Flotation For Nabunturan Market Opposed

COMPOSTELA VALLEY, Philippines - The move of the municipal government of Nabunturan to engage into ten-year bond flotation costing P90 million to finance for the construction of a new market building has been opposed by several sectors over its exorbitant amount including its project components.

Already, the pre-final edition of the feasibility study for the bond flotation was approved in a resolution three weeks ago by majority of the Sangguniang Bayan led by Vice Mayor Romeo Clarin and proponent Councilor Iluminada Cabuga amid vehement opposition by Councilors Raul Caballero and Alfonso Tabas Jr.

Bond flotation here would mean that the Nabunturan local government unit would issue and sell interest-bearing paper bonds with which would be paid up until ten years to individuals, government banks or private firms, the proceeds of which would be used for the construction project of the town’s public market building. If there is no bond buyer who is assumed to be the investor of the project, the bond flotation underwriter firm would underwrite the bonds in bulk and sell it to institutional buyers.

Bonds bought in this case would mean the obligations (capital, interest and other charges) incurred by the municipal government which it would pay in installments from its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) that has been assigned as source and collateral to the sinking fund repayment to the obligations.

Ideally, proceeds or collections from the project (public market building) to where the bond flotation was intended should be enough to pay for the obligations but practically the IRA is stashed to make up for the repayments of obligations.

Two weeks ago, a public hearing on the bond flotation was made by the executive and legislative departments without the presence of third-termer Mayor Macario Humol but howls of protest were raised by vocal participants led by Tabas.

Oppositors slammed the project’s staggering cost which is P90 million and several of its components as exorbitant and feared that delivery of basic social services would be strained after Humol’s term as the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of the town will be tapped to pay for the obligations backing up the bonds.

Based on the feasibility study alone prepared by the project’s financial adviser and consultant, Preferred Ventures Corp. only some P84 million will go directly to construction of the planned public market building, which has lot area of 1,700 square meters.

Tabas charged as “too expensive” the pre-construction components that include architectural and engineering design amounting to P6,057,465 , site development with P3,682,264, general requirements, P1,200,331, while P73,059,940. is allotted for the construction of the new public market building which would stand in the area where the old market spaces were razed to the ground by a fire over two years ago.

Oppositors charged as prohibitive are the P2.7 million for the 3% consultancy fee which will go to Preferred Ventures Corp as the project financial adviser, P1,350,000.00 for underwriter fee (1.5%), P900,000 guarantee fee (.05%-1.25%), and the P450,000 trustee fee (.5%), all which would be paid during the first year repayment period.

First the year alone, the municipal government would have to pay a total of P15.3 million, of which about P9.9 million goes for interest payment, Tabas disclosed.

Councilor Caballero appealed to his colleagues in the council not to push the bond flotation saying that ultimately it is disadvantageous to the local government as what the comparative study of the local finance committee showed earlier.

The Nabunturan Local Finance Committee reportedly released its comparative study late last year revealing that if the project is financed through a loan on various terms Landbank repayment for the first year repayment showed having only P4,836,750 at the least while the Development Bank of the Philippines has only P13,303,167.

The same study noted that on the second year, repayment would reach P45,047,600 under the bond flotation, while LandBank and DBP loans would only have P25,649,250and P40,633,750, respectively.

Oppositors also said that small stall holders who were victims of the fire would be displaced as the new public building would have high rentals for the spaces which ion effect trigger high prices of basic commodities in town.

They claimed that stall holders having 18 square-meter space would have to pay a monthly rental of P11,340 after paying P68,040 for the three months advance rentals.

Tabas alleged the several councilors from the majority went for a study tour on bond flotation this year to Calatagan, Batangas where personnel from Preferred Ventures Corp. met with and accommodated them.

Meanwhile, Mayor Cesar Colina of Maragusan has reportedly commented last week that he was able finish the construction of his town’s 96-stall public market building as replacement to the one that was also gutted by fire three years ago at a cost of P3.4 million only using his government’s own resources, in obvious comment to the bond flotation plan of Nabunturan. (Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com)