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NPA raids Abra military detachment

Government loses 30 rifles

BAGUIO CITY (June 5) — The Agustin Begnalen Command (ABC)-New People’s Army (NPA) overran a military detachment in Brgy. Tiempo, Tubo, Abra province in the early morning of June 3, carting away at least 30 government rifles.

The Northern Luzon Command of the military based in Tarlac City is yet to release the name of the soldier killed during the firefight.

Eight M14 rifles, 20 US Garand rifles and one US carbine were lost to the rebels.

Police sources however claim that at least 8 government troopers belonging to the Abra-based 41st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army were wounded. Among those wounded are: MSgt. Agullana; MSgt. Perez; Sgt. Mamugan; Corporal Tapaoan; paramilitary Benido Kipas; and a certain paramilitary Benedicto.

Government sources claim that a still unidentified barangay councilman was caught in the crossfire.

In the June 7 e-mailed press release, the ABC said that the Army and Civilian Armed Force Geographic Unit (CAFGU) troopers killed a civilian identified as Linda Camiling. This was contrary to earlier government troopers’ claim that the guerillas fired at civilians and used them as shields.

“This happened because the 41st IB violated the rules of war and insisted on using the Barangay Hall as a detachment/patrol base, despite of protests from the people,” the statement read.

The Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front (CPDF) released a similar statement affirming ABC’s accounts.

On Saturday, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal congratulated the NPA Command in Abra for its successful raid. He said that the significant number of firearms seized addresses “the growing need for ever-larger acquisitions of weapons and other war materiel to arm the growing number of new recruits.”

Rosal vowed more NPA tactical offensives “that would match and even surpass” the Abra raid in the second half of the year following months of consolidation in the first part of 2005.

The rebel spokesman called on all NPA units to launch bigger and more frequent raids and ambushes against military and police targets in order to take advantage of the “low morale, confusion and disorder” resulting from the jueteng controversy and in-fighting among officers of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines.

He further claimed that the successful Abra raid by the NPA “proves that revolutionary armed struggle continues to advance vigorously.”

The NPA raid, in fact the biggest attack against government targets of the CPP-NPA in Cordillera region this year, came in the wake of pronouncements by the government that the military would be able to defeat the insurgents in six to ten years.

CPDF Spokesperson Simon “Ka Filiw” Naogsan said that the offensive is the “Cordillera people’s response to the intensifying militarization connected with the successive incursions of several foreign mining companies in the Cordillera.”

Naogsan explained that ever since the Supreme Court declared the Mining Act of 1995 constitutional, the Arroyo administration aggressively enticed mining applications.

“The regime is baring the Cordillera for imperialist mining corporations to rape, by eliminating all protections to the rights of national minorities to their ancestral lands and natural resources”, Naogsan said. # Artemio A. Dumlao for NORDIS

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