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PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
NPA Inflicts Casualties on Elite 10th IB As Army Attacks Guerilla Camp
March 20, 2004
NPA Inflicts Casualties on Elite 10th IB As Army Attacks Guerilla Camp in Misamis Occidental, Ozamis City - Ka Leonar Ozarraga, District I spokesperson of Front Monterosa-New People's Army operating in Misamis Occidental confirmed the reported clash between the 10th Infantry Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division and the NPA in Brgy. Lower Bautista, Sapang Dalaga town on Sunday, March 14 that left four Army regulars dead and at least three soldiers seriously wounded including a junior officer. A Red fighter was killed in action, Ozarraga acknowledged. Col. Roland Rodriguez, deputy chief of the 1st ID, on the other hand made an earlier statement that no Army soldier was harmed.
Although unnamed residents and local government officials claimed the military sustained several casualties and that their bodies were brought separately to nearby Army detachments in neighboring Calamba town to avoid detection, the NPA spokesperson refused to give an exact number more than the given figures pending further verification.
"If it is true that several Army regulars were killed (more than the confirmed four) then it shows the formidable ability of the NPA to stage a defense to think that they faced an elite AFP unit," Ozarraga concluded despite losing a good Red fighter in the effort. The NPA spokesperson based the assessment on the battle report of the guerilla unit that encountered the U.S.-trained battalion deployed in Basilan during last year's Balikatan operations.
The NPA spokesperson identified the lone casualty as Gerry Bantilingan, 22 years old, a.k.a. Kerr, who hailed from Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur. Residents recovered his body and immediately buried it at the cemetery of Brgy. Lower Bautista. On Thursday, Lilia Bantilingan, the 46 year-old mother of the slain guerilla together with a group of human rights advocates exhumed Gerry's body. The group engaged the military in a heated exchange of words after a certain 1Lt. Mande Libertino, commanding officer of the Bravo Coy, 10th IB flatly refused to let them transport Gerry's body to Pagadian City. The standoff was diffused only after Sapang Dalaga town officials intervened and appealed to the military officer to release the body on humanitarian grounds.
The NPA also belied Col. Rodriguez' claim [which appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer - Across the Nation on March 18] that the gun battle lasted for over two hours before AFP troops managed to overrun the "heavily fortified" guerilla camp. Ozarraga said the AFP "overran" the camp only after the guerillas had long disengaged and inflicted damage on the attackers who failed to encircle the NPA position. The guerillas, who had foreknowledge of the AFP assault, maintained a defensive stance, and made an organized retreat after the attackers scampered into separate directions, the NPA spokesperson said. [The clash occurred in Lower Bautista, Sapang Dalaga not Upper Bautista, Calamba as reported in the PDI.] The firefight started at around seven in the morning of Sunday, March 14 and lasted for about forty-five minutes.
The NPA spokesperson called on the recently operationalized Joint Monitoring Committee of the GRP-NDFP Peace Panels to look into the incident and launch an official investigation in view of the accounts of residents that elements of the 10th IB are forcibly preventing them from resuming their farm work. Affected residents in the vicinity who evacuated during the AFP assault complained that their homes were ransacked and looted and their farm animals butchered by 10th IB soldiers. A massive AFP operation is going on in the area of Sapang Dalaga and Calamba purportedly in pursuit of NPA guerillas. ###
Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553
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