Fifteen days after government declared that all Communist guerilla units have been eliminated, the New People’s Army (NPA) dealt a blow to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), killing three soldiers in Baco, Oriental Mindoro last Tuesday, August 13.
Two weeks after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in his last State of the Nation Address last July 28 that no NPA unit remains anywhere in the country, the guerillas outmaneuvered attacking troopers of the Philippine Army’s First Scout Rangers Regiment, killing its unit commander and two enlisted personnel.
A Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) statement on Wednesday confirmed the incident, adding the guerilla fighters suffered no casualties in two clashes in the area.
The CPP said the attackers’ commander suffered a fatal headshot and died on the spot during the second encounter, identifying the fatality as a 1Lt. John O. Alberto.
A post by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa on Facebook confirmed the officer’s identification, adding he was the son of former Philippine Army commanding general Macairog Alberto, a classmate in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class of 1986.
The young officer was also a graduate of the PMA. Some reports said he was ranked captain at the time of death.
The CPP said the second fatality also died at the encounter site in Barangay Lantuyang 2 while the third expired while being taken to a hospital. The enlisted personnel were identified in various social media forums as Corporal Charlie Lagasi and Private Julian Oracion.
The group said three other government troopers were wounded.
People’s support
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said the NPA unit maneuvered to “counter-encircle” the attacking elite Philippine Army unit, “assisted by the masses in the area.”
Field reports indicated that the guerillas fired at the much-vaunted Army rangers to break through the Rangers’ encirclement, he added.
Valbuena said the NPA’s victory was also in defense of the oppressed people of Mindoro who had been suffering from the Marcos government’s “martial law.”
Government soldiers have committed grave atrocities and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the island for months, carrying out a “fascist rampage” after AFP’s declaration it will end the NPA in Mindoro by the end of the year, Valbuena said.
But the intensified martial rule in the island is also aimed at suppressing the people’s resistance to the entry of mining companies, plantations, energy projects and other foreign-backed or foreign-owned corporations, the CPP said.
The projects are aggressively grabbing land and destroying the environment, resulting in grave hardships to the peasant masses, Mangyan communities and people of Mindoro, it added.
“The just ire of the broad masses of Mindoro is being roused by the crimes and abuses of Marcos’ fascist troops,” Valbuena said.
“More than just a week ago, on August 1, a local peasant activist in San Jose town, in Occidental Mindoro, was killed by soldiers of the 4th IB. Last August 7, two NPA fighters who were detached from their unit were captured by troops of the 1st IB, subjected to torture before being killed, in violation of the international rules of war,” he further revealed.
He added that the NPA’s victory in Baco town will inspire the peasant masses and Mangyan people to fight more vigorously. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
