Army foils S. Mindanao reb attack

TAGUM CITY—The military on Thursday said it thwarted a plan by communist rebels to stage a major attack in southern Mindanao ahead of President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) after government soldiers clashed with insurgents in Compostela Valley province that left nine dead.

Maj. Gen. Noel Clement, 10th Infantry Division (ID) commander, said the fighting in the upland town of Laak was a reminder for troops “not to lower our guard down against any armed threat that could harm our people.”

The clash in LS Sarmiento village happened as soldiers from the 25th and 60th Infantry Battalions were pursuing a group of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who fled following the collapse of a rebel encampment in Casoon village in nearby Monkayo town early this week, said Capt. Alexandre Cabales, acting spokesperson for the 10th ID.

Cabales said their reports indicated that the rebels were massing up at the Laak-Monkayo border, prompting the military to conduct an operation that led to an encounter on July 10.

Military officials believe the rebel buildup in Compostela Valley is part of the NPA’s plan to intensify attacks as
Mr. Duterte prepares to address the nation on July 24.

Consolidation

At least eight rebels died in the firefight, one of the biggest losses of the NPA in Mindanao in recent years. A soldier also died in the clash, Cabales said.

“It was a consolidation for a tactical offensive they would be conducting as part of their so-called compliance to a directive to intensify attacks leading to the Sona,” he said.

Soldiers also recovered five assault rifles, an M-60 machine gun and several improvised explosives from the clash site.

A day before the clash, rebels also abducted PO1 Alfredo Basabica Jr. of the Davao Oriental public safety company. Basabica was on a Davao City-bound bus that the rebels blocked at a checkpoint in Compostela town.

Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, Southern Mindanao police chief, said Basabica was on his way to Davao to visit his family.

The rebels also took Basabica’s service pistol, said Senior Insp. Catherine dela Rey, southern Mindanao police spokesperson.

Firefight

In Masbate province, policemen engaged a group of communist rebels in a firefight in Cataingan town after land mine explosions were reported there on Wednesday morning.

Chief Insp. Albert Abayon, acting police chief of Cataingan, said the first explosion in Barangay Gahit damaged a pickup truck of a food manufacturing company.

He said the truck driver and his companion were able to run away from a group of rebels following the explosion at 8:30 a.m.

Senior Insp. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, spokesperson for the Bicol regional police, said another explosion happened more than an hour later when personnel from the Cataingan police and the 5th Maneuver Platoon of the Masbate police’s public safety company were on their way to Gahit.

The blast was followed by bursts of gunfire from NPA rebels.

Abayon said government forces engaged about 60 rebels in a five-minute firefight, some 750 meters away from the site of the first explosion.

Calubaquib, in a report, said that another group of policemen was sent to the clash site but another explosion met the team along the national road in Barangay Busay. Reports said no policeman was killed or wounded in the explosions and clash.

Also in Masbate, police said NPA rebels burned an abandoned Army camp in San Jacinto town on Monday night.

Calubaquib said residents of Barangay Calipat-an reported seeing 15 rebels, armed with assault rifles and carrying gallons of gasoline, at the camp in Sitio Padaguiton.

She said the rebels burned 13 barracks, a function hall and a mess hall.

In Quirino province, six soldiers were wounded in a blast on Tuesday when their convoy hit a land mine in Nagtipunan town. The soldiers were on their way to their headquarters when their trucks hit the mine. —WITH REPORTS FROM MA. APRIL MIER AND MAR S. ARGUELLES