Army foils NPA’s attack plans in Quezon

LUCENA CITY – Government forces have foiled a plan by communist New People’s Army rebels to attack selected police stations and cell phone communication towers in Quezon province, a military official claimed Friday.

Colonel Eduardo Año, commander of the Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade operating in Quezon, said the rebels’ plan was nipped in the bud when his men intercepted and engaged in a firefight some 25 fully armed rebels in the hinterlands of Barangay (village) Angeles in Atimonan at around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

“Based from the information provided to us by our assets, the NPA’s were preparing to attack selected police stations and Globe cell sites,” Año said over the phone Friday morning.

He said the government forces suffered no casualties during the short encounter but claimed that the rebels suffered an undetermined number of casualties.

“We were told by residents along the escape routes that some of the rebels were carrying bodies of their comrades,” Año said.

He said Army soldiers recovered explosives and backpacks containing documents left behind by the fleeing rebels.

Año said the group of rebels was the same unit that carried out the daring attacks on the Quezon provincial jail in Lucena City and San Narciso town police station in nearly three years ago.

In October 2008, a band of communist guerrillas raided the provincial jail and freed seven of their detained comrades.

In December 2009, a group of communist guerrillas disguised as journalists gained entry into a police station in San Narciso and carted away 14 firearms.

Año predicted that with a series of NPA defeats in Quezon, “they will become an insignificant force in two years time”.

“They are losing mass base support. More NPA rebels are coming down to surrender. They could no longer intimidate businessmen to pay revo tax. They are now getting nowhere,” Año said.

Last month, one Ambrosio Rey, also known by the aliases “Danilo Bautista,” “Ka Darwin,” “Ka Daroy” and “Ka Verano, the alleged chief of “revolutionary tax” collectors of the NPA in Quezon province, was arrested in Unisan town.

“Information that led to his arrest was provided to us by businessmen who were fed up with the extortion activities of the NPA,” Año said.

A recent military report claimed that communist guerillas in the province had been reduced to a ragtag army of only 64, from 262 fully armed combatants in 1998. However, the rebels disputed the report.

“If the NPA in Quezon has no more force, why it is that sizable military and police elements have been deployed and continue to launch military operations in different areas of the province?” Armine de Guia, spokesman of the NPA’s Apolonio Mendoza Command, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview two months ago.