INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The New People’s Army in Southern Mindanao claimed to have killed nine soldiers and wounded several others in a series of attacks in the Paquibato district of Davao City since April 26.
The military said this was an empty claim and reported instead that three NPA rebels were killed in a clash in Compostela Valley on April 30.
Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Southern Mindanao, said in a statement issued Friday that the military has been concealing its casualties even as it continued to conduct psychological and combat warfare in the hinterlands of the Davao provinces.
Sanchez said that on April 26, New People’s Army rebels ambushed and killed two soldiers in Paquibato district.
The following day, he said, five soldiers were killed in another NPA attack in Paquibato.
On May 1, Sanchez said, two more soldiers were slain in Paquibato when soldiers stormed an NPA encampment in Barangay Fatima.
In a statement, the military’s 10th Infantry Division said the NPA has been making false claims.
Captain Ernest Carolina, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division, said that on the contrary, soldiers killed three NPA rebels in an encounter in Montevista, Compostela Valley, on April 30.
Carolina said the firefight lasted around 10 minutes. Aside from the bodies of the slain rebels, he said, soldiers of 25th Infantry Battalion also recovered two handguns and landmines.
“The NPA frequent this area in order to replenish their supplies and collect extortion money from establishments in the area. They use civilians to run errands for them like buying groceries and they have also laid a landmine in the road here in the past,” he said.
Sanchez said the NPA attacks would continue as it has to defend civilians from abuses the military allegedly commits.
Major General Ariel Bernardo, 10th Infantry Division commander, said the military expected the NPA to conduct more attacks.
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