Correspondence Reports:
Struggle against intense militarization in Quezon

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The 201st Bde with two battalions (74th and 76th) and 38 CAFGU companies are permanently deployed in the province. Most of the personnel of the 74th and 76th IB are former Scout Ranger troops well-trained in �counterinsurgency� tactics. The Laguna-based 59th IB occasionally joins them in military operations. In addition, three companies of the PNP Provincial Mobile Group (416th, 417th and 418th) launch regular operations in the province�s interior areas.

The enemy concentrates on areas suspected to be NPA bases and where the people�s army reportedly maintains a frequent presence. It also concentrates on densely populated plains areas, town centers and cities where the democratic mass movement is strong.

As in other parts of the country, the AFP uses �siege� tactics in Southern Tagalog, employing big enemy forces. �Siege� tactics involve combining various AFP and PNP units in operations and employing different means for the more rapid deployment of troops in fields of battle.

Together with conducting large-scale military operations that could be launched on short notice, the AFP strengthens its territorial forces. It also sets up several encampments, conducts massive recruitment for the CAFGU and builds the Barangay Intelligence Network to control and monitor its target areas.

The revolutionary people of Quezon have resolutely confronted all this. They actively oppose increasingly bigger military operations in guerrilla fronts and the simultaneous attacks on the democratic mass movement.

Despite the military�s strength and number in the province and the large-scale operations it launches, the NPA is not only able to preserve itself and its mass base, it has also been able to deliver intense blows on the enemy.

From May to June this year, NPA forces thwarted four large military operations and demonstrated its defense and fighting capacity. Relatively small guerrilla units were able to prevail over the far bigger AFP formations employing �siege� tactics. The greater number of fascist troops entering revolutionary areas have provided the NPA with more targets for its tactical offensives.

On June 20, the Maria Theresa De Leon Command (MTDLC) encountered elements of the 74th IB conducting operations along the border of Mulanay and San Francisco towns. The Red fighters were on their way to a neighboring barrio when they chanced upon the military resting on the edge of a stream. They immediately opened fire on the enemy troops, killing three of them. This AFP unit has perpetrated a long list of human rights violations in Far South Quezon.

Earlier, the MTDLC had conducted harassment operations against troops of the 74th IB in Barangay Taingon, San Francisco, Quezon, killing four soldiers. The AFP forces were not able to return fire. Severely demoralized, the rest of the troops returned to camp.

On June 16, a unit under the NPA Apolonio Mendoza Command (AMC) was ambushed by a platoon of the 74th IB in Barangay Nanadiego, Mulanay. The firefight lasted three hours but the Red fighters were able to seize the initiative in the first volley of fire. The AFP troops immediately beat a retreat, thus enabling the comrades to launch an assault, driving the military forces to scamper in different directions.

Meanwhile, an NPA blocking force effectively stopped enemy reinforcements who had come aboard an armored personnel carrier and two six-by-six trucks. The NPA detonated a land mine on one of the trucks, the convoy�s lead vehicle.

The NPA seized one M16 from this battle. Fifteen military men were killed and an undetermined number wounded. Shamed, the soldiers brought out their dead and wounded through different towns and reported to the media that they sustained only one dead and three wounded.

Meanwhile, the Red fighters suffered one casualty�Renato Vergara (Ka Medel)�who was wounded. He died while being evacuated from the scene of the fighting.

On May 5, a 70-man composite unit of the 59th, 74th and 76th IB encircled an oversized platoon of the AMC encamped in Barangay Anyaw, Catanauan. The Red fighters were able to fight back and immediately broke free from the enemy cordon. Nonetheless, five fighters were killed in the defensive action.

Four soldiers were killed on the spot on the AFP side, including one Lieutenant Ferrer, the commander of the assaulting unit. Residents of the area reported that up to 16 enemy soldiers were killed.

Just as what transpired in Mulanay, the military brought out its dead and wounded through Catanauan�s neighboring towns, with some even being airlifted by helicopter, to prevent the townspeople and the media from learning the real extent of the AFP�s casualties.

21 July 2004
English Edition

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