Oplan Bantay Laya 2 en route to failure, AFP casualties in Samar mounting

The New People's Army in Eastern Visayas said today that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is beleaguered by the NPA's guerrilla warfare in Samar, the principal target of the Arroyo government's Oplan Bantay Laya 2 in the region this year. "The 8th Infantry Division exudes nothing but press release bombast over Oplan Bantay Laya 2," said Ka Karlos Manuel, spokesperson of the Efren Martires Regional Operations Command. "But the sense of inevitability of Oplan Bantay Laya 2 is fast being stripped away this year by repeated AFP losses and the failure to destroy a single NPA unit." [Please see separate file about the NPA's combat reports from January-July 2008.]

Ka Karlos elaborated that, "In military terms, the 8th ID in waging OBL 2 in Samar sustained at least 43 elements killed in action and many more wounded in action from January-July 2008. Their losses may be even bigger because we are still awaiting the reports from the more far-flung NPA fronts. On the other hand, the NPA sustained at least three Red fighters killed in action in the same period. As a longer time frame, from 2005 to April 2008 in the entire region the NPA sustained nine casualties killed in action while the AFP had 129 casualties killed in action, or a ratio of roughly 1 to 14. This indicates that the NPA is more than capable of fighting the AFP.

"Moreover, in political terms, the Arroyo regime and its military are more than ever isolated for attacking the civilian population in the vain hope of denying support to the NPA. But political repression coupled with socio-economic crisis increases rather than decreases support for the NPA."

In castigating the AFP's callousness to civilians, the NPA spokesperson cited the mass evacuation of 800 people in Gen. MacArthur, Eastern Samar due to military abuses just after Typhoon Frank last June. "Using their armed strength on civilians is despicable, signifies weakness and desperation on the part of the AFP, and constitutes war crimes under international humanitarian law. The 62nd IB led by Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce is despised by the people of Eastern Samar as another disaster foisted on them even though they had just suffered through a powerful typhoon. The NPA supports the people who are asserting their rights as civilians and demanding that they be peaceably allowed to return to their villages, as well as calling for justice and redress for the war crimes of the 62nd IB."

The EMROC spokesperson expressed confidence that the NPA will defeat Oplan Bantay Laya 2 and step up guerrilla offensives against the AFP in the entire region. "The NPA in Samar continues to improve its fighting capabilities as well as expand its forces in the midst of battling Oplan Bantay Laya 2. Meanwhile, the NPA in Leyte remains intact and has expanded to 14 barrios in four towns as of April 2008, debunking the victorious posturing of the 8th ID. Thus the NPA in Eastern Visayas is on the right track not only in defeating Oplan Bantay Laya 2, but in intensifying guerrilla warfare to help the people in the downfall of the fascist, corrupt and puppet Arroyo regime."#


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