A New People’s Army (NPA)-Quezon (Apolonio Mendoza Command) unit fired at the newly built 85th IB camp in Barangay Cogorin Ibaba, Lopez, Quezon on August 2. The unit carried out the attack at 7:30 p.m. Lieutenant Colonel Reynir Nirza serves as the battalion commander and is under the 2nd ID command.

Quezonians welcomed the attack as a way to hold the bloodthirsty battalion accountable for their crimes and to give justice to their peasant victims.

Another encounter occured that day in the town of Tagkawayan at 10:25 a.m. where Sandy Broncano (Ka Tau/Ino) was martyred.

In that battle, the 201st IBde used overwhelming force through aerial bombing and strafing in the forested boundaries of Tagkawayan, Quezon and Labo, Camarines Norte. This action violates the principle of proportionality stipulated by international humanitarian law.

According to the NPA-Quezon, these incidents contradict the claims of the 201st IBde and local governments that Quezon is insurgency-free and has Stable Internal Peace and Security (SIPS) status. It also refutes Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s fourth state of the nation declaration that “no guerrilla group remains.”

“The deep-rooted revolutionary tradition cannot be uprooted by any degree of cruel AFP-PNP suppression operations. The NPA in Quezon resolutely stands that they remain and continue to be supported by the peasant masses and indigenous people, and this is true for the entire Southern Tagalog region,” NPA-Quezon spokesperson Ka Cleo del Mundo said.

He added, “The declarations of insurgency-free and SIPS are meaningless…as long as agrarian reform remains bogus and massive funds are allotted to suppression operations, the countryside remains fertile ground for the growth of the peasant war and continues to nurture the uprising of the poor in rural areas nationwide.”

Meanwhile, the Tanggol Quezon team carrying out a fact-finding mission about military bombings in the province has experienced harassment from police and military. Their goal is to determine the situation of the civilian population amid Armed Forces of the Philippines’ intensified combat operations and military rule.