SIXTEEN members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) were killed and scores of firearms were recovered by government forces after a firefight in Dolores town in Eastern Samar yesterday.
Army soldiers raided a bomb-making hideout of the NPA in Barangay Osmeña at around 4 a.m after the military received information about the location of the rebel lair.
Sporadic firefight was ongoing as of around 5 p.m. yesterday, said Maj. Gen. Pio Dinioso, commander of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division based in Samar.
Without giving numbers, Dinioso said “many” NPA rebels were seen dead by the operating troops, “On the AFP side, there’s none,” he said.
“The firefight was really intense, that’s why we delivered indirect fire (artillery) support and air asset support (for the engaged troops),” said Maj. Reynaldo Aragones, 8th ID spokesman.
Armed Forces spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala said initial information indicated 16 rebels died in the encounter.
Troops also ceased 29 high-powered firearms from the rebels, he said.
Zagala said the operation was conducted based on information received from the community.
Early this month, AFP chief Lt. Gen. Jose Faustino directed military units to finish off the NPA this year.
President Duterte issued a proclamation in November 2017 terminating peace negotiations with the communists.
Faustino said the NPA has about 3,000 to 3,200 fighters with a “few remaining guerrilla fronts.” The NPA’s peak strength reached around 25,000 in the late 1980s.
Meanwhile, the chief of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency warned companies against providing financial support to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA.
NICA director general Alex Paul Monteagudo, also a key member of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, vowed to file charges against these companies for terrorism financing.
“If they refuse to work with the NTF-ELCAC, then we will enforce the law so that we can compel them to stop,” Monteagudo said in a virtual press briefing, referring to companies that continue to give in to the extortion demands of the communists.
“They become accessory to terrorism… so under the law, they are liable…So they should stop (giving money to the communists),” he also said.
Monteagudo said the CPP-NPA was able to collect about P5.4 billion from 2016 to 2018 from its extortion activities. Most of these collections or about P3 billion came from mining companies, he said.
The Anti-Terrorism Council designated the CPP and the NPA as terrorist organizations in December last year. It also designated the National Democratic Front, which is representing the CPP and the NPA in peace negotiations with government, as a terrorist organization, just last June.
