An NPA-Mindoro (Lucio de Guzman Command) unit maneuvered safely after clashing with 4th IB troopers in Sitio Pagbok, Barangay Panaytayan, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro on August 19. The NPA-Mindoro reported that the unit fought bravely against the soldiers’ attempt to wipe them out.

“(The NPA) fought bravely against the attacking enemy and withdrew in an organized manner without any damage,” NPA-Mindoro spokesperson Ka Madaay Gasic said.

The encounter happened only a few days after the NPA-Mindoro units’ successive active defense actions against the attacking 203rd IBde troopers in the town of Baco on August 9 and 12.

Ka Madaay said the 203rd IBde continues to fail in its vile objective to impair and crush the NPA in Mindoro. “The NPA-Mindoro commanders and fighters refute the enemy’s poisonous propaganda that the people’s army is weak and on the brink of annihilation,” he said.

He stated that the series of battles this August clearly shows that the Red commanders and fighters of the people’s army in Mindoro maintain strong capability and determination to fight. “The perseverance of the NPA in Mindoro is a slap in the face of the 203rd IBde and the entire AFP,” Ka Madaay said.

Ka Madaay declared that 2nd ID commander MGen. Ramon Zagala’s statement on August 10 will again be proven meaningless. Zagala declared that his command would complete the counterinsurgency campaign in Mindoro, confront NPA units in a “decisive battle,” and ensure the destruction of the revolutionary armed struggle by the end of 2025. “MGen. Zagala’s statement is pure arrogance,” he said.

The NPA-Mindoro spokesperson explained that whatever the Marcos regime and the AFP do, they will never sever the support and recruitment of the oppressed masses into the people’s army because the masses know the reason for the revolution. “The masses know that the revolutionary armed struggle and the people’s army are their most reliable weapons against poverty and oppression,” Ka Madaay added.

He called on all revolutionary forces in Mindoro, especially the NPA, to be bolder, more determined, and sharper in defeating the enemy in all battlefields, and in enlightening and organizing the masses to mobilize them for the people’s democratic revolution.