NPA rebels stage 5 attacks a week —PNP

MANILA, Philippines—Communist New People’s Army guerrillas are launching practically five attacks a week on government positions or installations in the countryside, the Philippine National Police said.

PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been engaging the authorities practically every weekday, prompting the police to adopt countermeasures.

He noted recent incidents in Masbate province, where a police station had come under attack and a bomb had been discovered, as well as rebel offensives in Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur and Bukidnon.

On Monday morning, a bomb was recovered next to a concrete wall of the Masbate’s San Fernando police station, Cruz said. The day before, NPA members posing as Army soldiers attempted to overrun the Mobo police station in the same province, wounding three policemen.

One soldier was also killed hours later in an ambush of security forces following the attack.

“This latest incident of CPP/NPA hostility, as well as the recent incidents in Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, and Bukidnon could all be part of the CPP/NPA strategy as contained in the order of the CPP/NPA Central Committee to all NPA Guerilla Fronts to launch at least one tactical offensive every three months,” Cruz said of the Mobo incident.

He said this “translates to roughly five tactical offensives every week throughout the country.”

PNP Director General Raul M. Bacalzo ordered all regional directors to strengthen defenses of all “soft targets” and avoid being caught flat-footed in case of attacks.

“Police units were likewise instructed to double efforts in launching offensive operations against the local insurgents by mobilizing the Barangay (village) Information Network and other intelligence sources in the community,” Cruz said.

Bacalzo cited the need to give focus to isolated police posts and government installations in the wake of recent hostilities initiated by the NPA.

In a related development, the PNP chief commended the Mobo police station led by Senior Inspector Leus A. Prima for putting up a brave stand against an “overwhelming enemy force” that staged the early morning assault on Sunday.

In its blog, the Bicol chapter of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the CPP’s political arm, said the Masbate attacks were to protest the construction of a coal plant in Barangay Tugbo and the mining projects of two firms.

It also said the Mobo attack was in response to what it described as Mayor Percival Castillo’s anti-people projects and his support of the police and military’s counter-revolutionary campaign.