PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

Additional AFP troops in Mindanao to face more NPA tactical offensives--CPP
July 23, 2008

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today said the redeployment of additional troops to Mindanao "only gives more opportunities for the New People's Army (NPA) to carry out more telling tactical offensives against the fascist enemy troops in the island."

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday announced that a battalion of mechanized infantry–about 500 soldiers with tanks and armored vehicles–plus two field artillery batteries of about 200 gunners were additionally deployed to Mindanao on Sunday, bringing up the military deployment in the island to one half of total Philippine Army forces. According to the AFP, the deployment of additional army troops is in response to stepped-up offensives by the NPA in several guerrilla fronts there.

In a statement, the CPP said, "The deployment of additional AFP troops is a virtual admission of the continuing failure of its Oplan Bantay Laya ‘counterinsurgency’ operations. Especially since last year, the AFP has been on a rampage in several guerrilla fronts in Mindanao in a desperate effort to stop the advances of the NPA and all revolutionary forces."

"The NPA in the island, however, with its deep and widespread people’s support and mastery of guerrilla tactics, has successfully rebuffed these fascist military operations. The Red fighters have carried out brilliant tactical offensives against the most brutal units of the government military, police and paramilitary forces, as well as the criminal drug syndicates and private armies attached to the AFP and security forces of plunderous foreign mining firms and big commercial plantations that have committed grave abuses against the people and the environment," the CPP continued.

Since 2007, the NPA in Mindanao has successfully been carrying out several hundred big and small tactical offensives. The more recent tactical offensives include the raid on a drilling site of the notorious Sagittarius Mines in Kiblawan, Davao Del Sur last July 19 where the NPA confiscated 12 firearms; another raid on the Banay-Banay, Davao Oriental police station where 18 firearms were seized; and the simultaneous raids on police stations and CAFGU detachments in Dapa and General Luna in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte last June 28.

The CPP said the deployment of additional troops in Mindanao "will in no way hinder the advance of the armed revolutionary movement. On the contrary, by pouring in more fascist troops and brutalizing more and more people in its campaigns of suppression, the AFP succeeds only in teaching the people the need to wage armed revolutionary struggle against the reactionary regime. The presence of more AFP troops will also provide the NPA more targets for cherry-picking enemy forces in its numerous guerrilla fronts and expansion areas in the island."

"At the same time," the CPP said that "the redeployment of AFP troops allows the armed revolutionary forces in other guerrilla fronts greater leeway to step up their revolutionary work and continue tactical offensives against small and isolated enemy units."

Reference:
Marco Valbuena
Media Officer
Cellphone Numbers: 09179776392 :: 09282242061
E-mail:cppme...@gmail.com