AFP challenges NPA anew to deny links with Bayan Muna

By Ronron
March 5, 2007

A Philippine military spokesman challenged the New People’s Army (NPA) anew on Monday to deny its links with the party-list group Bayan Muna following the recovery of the latter’s campaign materials from suspected rebels whom government troops clashed with last February 28 in a mountainous village in Davao City.

Maj. Ernesto Torres, Jr., public information officer of the Philippine Army, said several campaign materials of different sorts were retrieved by elements of the Philippine Army’s 73rd Infantry Battalion Wednesday last week after it engaged an undetermined number of guerillas in a firefight in Barangay Eden, Toril District.

The clash resulted in the death of three suspected NPA members and the wounding of two government soldiers, Torres said.

“Following the report, we challenge the NPA leadership to prove that they are in no way associated with any political group that is running for election in the upcoming May election,” Torres said.

Recovered from the clash site were posters, calendars, leaflets, and stickers of Bayan Muna, some of which bore the pictures of Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo, Joel Virador, and Teodoro Casino. Torres said each type had about 50 pieces.

Aside from the said “campaign materials,” the Army fighters, under the command of 2Lt. Ulysses Mendoza, also recovered 52 rounds of ammunition for M60 (General Purpose Machine Gun), two improvised landmines, medical paraphernalia, and other personal belongings and documents.

The wounded soldiers were identified by Torres as Staff Sergeant Conrado Nequiaz and militiaman Gary Lopez, a rebel returnee.

The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost two decades now. It bowed out of the peace negotiations with government in August 2004 after it was tagged as a terrorist group by the US and European Union governments.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has long alleged that Bayan Muna and other Left-leaning party-list groups like Gabriela and Anakpawis are the legal front organizations of the communist movement and have been channeling funds to the NPA.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the AFP to crush the insurgency movement by 2010 when she ends her term./DMS