The New People’s Army (NPA) in Northern Samar today claimed the successful ambush against elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Barangay Magsaysay, Mapanas yesterday early morning.

Red fighters used a command-detonated explosive (CDEx) against troops of the 20th Infantry Battalion and 63rd Infantry Battalion conducting combat patrol operations outside the barangay. At least seven fascist troops were left wounded of whom two are in critical condition, according to initial reports.

Ka Amado Pesante, spokesperson of the Rodante Urtal Command of the NPA in Northern Samar, said that their tactical offensive was in response to the people’s demand for justice for the widespread rights violations, systematic and forced surrender of civilians, and dislocation of the peasants’ livelihood caused by military occupation of their communities.

At least 63 sitios and barangays in the Pacific area, covering the towns of Mapanas, Palapag, Gamay and Lapinig, have been subjected to intensified military presence since last year. The AFP through the 8th Infantry Division has alleged that 26 of these villages have been already “cleared” of NPA influence.

Pesante said that the tactical offensive is a slap to the face of 8th ID commander Major General Edgardo de Leon as well as his fellow inveterate liars in the 803rd IBde and 20th IB who parrot the script that the NPA in the province has weakened or lacks mass support.

The villages in the Pacific area are also part of the 229 barangays in Northen Samar which the Provincial Task Force-Elcac led by the 803rd Infantry Brigade declared last March that they will “clear” of NPA presence by the end of June. Pesante said that since then, they have monitored the presence of hundreds of troops of the Philippine Army in the villages in the province.

“Their deadline has passed and they have failed. The NPA is a peasant army which, despite being armed with inferior weapons, could not have won in battle against the AFP without their iron will and the support of the masses who are urgently calling for revolutionary justice,” he said.

Pesante forewarned that for as long as military occupation of peasant communities continues and the rotten system that the AFP defends prevails, the NPA in Northern Samar will surely conduct more tactical offensives, especially as the new puppet president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Junior is set to deliver his first State of the Nation Address in a few weeks.

“The NPA in Northern Samar share this military victory with the masses who are also heroically overcoming the military’s fascist attacks. We will continue to launch tactical offensives in the countryside and in the towns and cities, especially targeting the fascist elements most reviled and have the biggest blood debts against the masses,” he ended.