Correspondence Reports:
All-out war a failure in Panay

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

NPA wipes out SOT command in Panay island

It was 5:30 p.m. of February 24, 2003 when an NPA unit ambushed a squad of the Special Operations Team (SOT) under Task Force Panay along the Sibagwan creek in Barangay Daan Sur, Tapaz, Capiz. Killed in the firefight were Capt. Francisco Fonteveros, SOT commander in Panay, four other soldiers and their CAFGU guide. One other soldier was wounded. The NPA unit seized five M16 rifles, an M14, several rounds of ammunition and a two-way radio. The fighting lasted about 45 minutes.

Martyred during the firefight was Comrade Ismaelito "Ka Bob" Giganto, the NPA commander of the Central Front.

This victory belies the 3rd ID-led Task Force Panay's (TFP) earlier declaration that it had eradicated the NPA in Tapaz. They had boasted that the SOT was set to transfer control over the town to the infantry and CAFGU forces.

Under the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime's allout war policy, the TFP had been concentrating on the Central Panay guerrilla front for almost two years (up to the end of 2002). The Central Front is one of the 3rd ID's priority areas in its bid to crush the NPA. Since July 2001, the TFP has concentrated ever bigger forces on the Central Front. In October 2002, up to two-thirds of the entire military force in Panay was deployed in about three towns along the Capiz-Iloilo-Aklan tri-boundary. Among the military forces deployed were the 12th IB, the Provisional Infantry Battalion (PIB), the SOT, CAFGU forces and the Philippine Army Engineering Battalion.

Their area of concentration comprised the ancestral lands of the Tumanduk tribe, a national minority group in Panay. The Tumanduk tribespeople strongly support the revolutionary movement because of the latter's assistance in their struggle against the seizure of their land. The martyred Ka Bob was in fact a valiant Red commander from the ranks of the Tumanduk tribe.

The first SOT batch directly under the 3rd ID's command was deployed in November-December 2001 to the intermediate portion of Tapaz, in eight adjacent barrios. It launched combat and psywar operations to coerce the people into joining the CAFGU and the Barrio Intelligence Network (BIN). In July 2002, the third SOT batch, which was under the TFP's command, was deployed to the mountainous barangays (the second batch had been deployed to Bohol instead). Meanwhile, the 12th IB was stationed in villages surrounding the SOT-saturated areas to serve as their security force.

But after close to two years, the TFP had failed in its objective of recruiting CAFGU and BIN elements in each barrio. Instead, it reached less than half of its target, and recruited bad elements who have long been despised by the masses in the area.

The reactionary military committed grave abuses against the people during their long stint in the area. Their marauding activities included, among others, forcibly concentrating people in the barrio centers and imposing curfews, destroying crops, arresting and terrorizing persons suspected of being active in the movement, and attempted rape. They shot Dante Parle, a youth suspected of being an NPA member. This was but part of a string of repressive activities against the national minorities in Tapaz perpetrated since the time of the US-Marcos regime. As before, such human rights abuses reaped ever bigger people's protests and swelled the ranks of the people's army.

Aside from targetting the destruction of revolutionary mass organizations, the AFP also aimed to pursue and crush NPA units. They launched combat operations. There were times when more than two battalion-size operations were launched in a span of one month.

Nonetheless, the NPA was never involved in any decisive encounter because the people ensured the safety of their army and the mass organizations.

The military was thus forced to concoct firefights. For instance, on November 27, 2002 in Santa Carmen, Dumalag, Capiz, a soldier shot and killed a fellow soldier and seriously wounded another during a combat clearing operation by the 12th IB. The TFP boasted that the incident constituted an encounter with the NPA and even bestowed honors on the soldier they had killed.

Recently, the NPA was able to wipe out no less than the SOT command. The victorious tactical offensive highlighted the failure of the military's campaign.

The NPA will thwart all counterrevolutionary campaigns of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. With the masses' support, it continues to gain strength and consolidate, along with the revolutionary mass organizations of national minorities set up to defend their ancestral lands.

22 March 2003
English Edition

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