Manila, Philippines – Five members of the communist group New People’s Army (NPA) were killed in a firefight with army troops in a coastal town in Camarines Sur province on Tuesday, Dec. 23, the military said.
The fresh spate of clashes came two days before a ceasefire unilaterally declared by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) supposedly would take effect. The NPA, the armed wing of the CPP, was to implement that ceasefire on Christmas Day and Dec. 26, and on New Year’s eve until Jan. 1.
On the other hand, the army in Bicol and Iloilo provinces said on Tuesday that no ceasefire is in place, echoing last week’s official statements by the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) headquarters that the administration will not reciprocate the communist group’s call for a four-day ceasefire.
The DND and AFP had said that military duties are “not subject to pause or seasons” so the military continues its “security operations to ensure peace and order and prevent armed groups from exploiting the situation to regroup, rearm, or threaten public safety.”
Army troops continue to hunt down the rebels, Major Frank Roldan, spokesperson for the 9th Infantry Division, told NewsWatch Plus on Tuesday, Dec. 23.
A soldier from the 83rd Infantry Battalion suffered minor injuries from the encounter in Burabod village in the municipality of Lagonoy in Camarines Sur, he said.
“Firearms and other war materials were also recovered during the operation,” the army said in a statement.
Before Tuesday’s encounter, two soldiers were killed in another village in Camarines Sur on Dec. 19.
The military identified the fatalities as the platoon leader with the rank of a lieutenant and a sergeant. Military honors were given during their funeral held over the weekend.
The soldiers were on security patrol in the village of Cabungan in Balatan town in Camarines Sur when they were killed by anti-personnel landmines, weapons the military said are banned under the International Humanitarian Law. Three other army men were seriously injured in that separate encounter with the NPA guerillas.
The five-decade-old insurgency has weakened amid loss of senior leaders and military operations that led to fragmented and operationally degraded networks, the Defense department earlier said, a statement contradicted by the communist movement.
