Armed struggle resurges in Negros
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sodusta of the 303rd Infantry Brigade took great pains to boast that the AFP was already zeroing in on the NPA, especially after a Philippine Army raid on a Red fighters' encampment in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental on June 12. Eight soldiers were killed and seven enemy troopers were wounded in the firefight but the AFP concealed the real extent of its casualties. Even as the AFP was shooting off its mouth, however, it was embarrassed no end when this time, the NPA ambushed a platoon of the 12th IB and CAFGU in Sitio Cagay, Barangay Camindangan in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental on July 22.
The AFP was so obviously frantic that it immediately called for an Emergency Joint Police-Army Conference in Camp Alfredo Montelibano in Negros Occidental and came up with a "coordinated strategy" for an "all-out defense" against the NPA which may attack anytime and anywhere in Negros.
Accordingly, the AFP is currently concentrating more forces in Negros. Almost 500 Scout Rangers were drawn from various units nationwide and brought to the island on June 26 to serve as strike forces against the NPA. This is aside from the 11th IB, 61st IB, 66th IB and 12th IB (which serves as "handler" to 1,200 CAFGU elements), 542nd Engineering Battalion, PNP Regional Mobile Groups (RMG 6 and RMG 7) and Arturo Tabara's RPA bandit group that have long been sowing terror in Negros.
The revolutionary forces, however, will surely surmount the concentration of additional military forces and the supposedly new anti-NPA strategies just as it had done during previous enemy military campaigns, and advance armed struggle in the island.
Blow to "Oplan Gordian Knot." When the Arroyo regime unleashed in 2002 its so-called "Oplan Gordian Knot" which it dubbed as a quick and bold solution to the revolutionary movement's growth in the island, the NPA responded with a series of tactical offensives. On August 6, 2003, 1Lt. Regner Jerson, one of Sodusta's most active officers, was ambushed and killed in Kanlaon City, Negros Oriental. The AFP launched a brigade-size operation to recover its flagging morale, but military forces merely ended up "punching the air."
The enemy's demoralization worsened when it sustained more casualties on August 17. A composite force of Scout Rangers, Philippine Army solders and RPA elements attempted to assault an NPA encampment in Sitio Mambutoy, Barangay Locoton in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, but it was the AFP that brought back two dead and two wounded. There were no casualties on the NPA side.
Simultaneously, the democratic mass movement in the cities and town centers strongly assailed intensifying militarization in the countryside.
On December 16, 2003, the NPA assaulted an RPA camp in Sitio Kakha, Barangay Tamlac, Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental. Red fighters from the Southwest Front seized eleven M16 rifles, an M79 grenade launcher and ammunition. Many people rejoiced upon hearing news about the raid. They had long been complaining about the RPA's extortion, illegal drug pushing, animal rustling and threats to their lives.
In response, tighter coordination was effected among local governments, the military and the police through Peace and Order Councils at the municipal and provincial levels. The AFP, PNP and other government agencies' intelligence machinery was strengthened through the Barrio Intelligence Network (BIN). Detachments were reinforced and military and psy-war operations conducted more frequently. Anti-communist and malicious intrigues against progressive organizations continued without letup. But the revolutionary movement and the people of Negros firmly resisted all this.
Intensifying armed struggle. At dawn of February 15, 2004, guerrillas of the Bonifacio Pasakan Command-Guerrilla Front 2 attacked and overran the 44th CAFGU Coy detachment in Barangay Mahalang, Himamaylan City. It was the first raid ever on the 61st IB's heavily fortified Advance Command Post. A Philippine Army sergeant who served as the detachment's commander was killed while two CAFGU elements surrendered. The NPA confiscated an M16, an M14 and three Garand rifles. Eduardo Raya, a CAFGU element, was arrested for his active role in anti-NPA operations, but was eventually released on humanitarian grounds.
The raid also rendered justice to victims of fascist brutality like 62-year-old Morito Arcadenia who died after being repeatedly struck with a rifle butt and a piece of wood by elements of the 61st IB conducting operations in November 2002 in Manlocahoc, Sipalay, Negros Occidental.
On March 3, Red fighters of the Leonardo Panaligan Command (LPC)-Guerrilla Front 1 ambushed and killed two RPA elements who were aboard a motorcycle in Sitio Estaka, Barangay Humay-Humay, Guihulngan, Negros Oriental.
Meanwhile, on May 5, at the height of the election campaign, a commando unit under the LPC attacked the PNP Provincial Mobile Group (PMG) Outpost in Barangay Masulog, Kanlaon City. The PMG was a key unit in launching counterrevolutionary campaigns against the NPA. It was also a bane to the masses because policemen extorted money from all vehicles that passed in front of the outpost. The Red fighters seized three M16s, an M14 rifle, three cal .45 pistols, ammunition, boots and uniforms from the five-minute raid.
In Barangay Guimbalaon, Silay City, members of the Jean Pelle Command arrested on May 8 two RPA elements extorting money from 20 haciendas. Confiscated from them were the collection money, two .38 revolvers and a grenade. The RPA elements also admitted to serving as private bodyguards of politicians. They were released after they promised to leave the RPA and turn a new leaf.
Whatever the blows inflicted by the enemy, they will surely meet defeat as armed struggle and the entire revolutionary movement continue to advance to higher levels in Negros.
| 
