Manila: Seven government soldiers were killed and two others were hurt by communist rebels who launched two attacks against the military in the southern Philippines on Monday, the military said.
Four soldiers and three members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, a pro-government paramilitary, were killed when a powerful bomb exploded on a road connecting Tulunan town and Bituan village in North Cotabato, the Tulunan municipal police office said in a report that reached the Philippine National Police’s headquarters in suburban Quezon City.
Captain Ernesto Aguilar of the 38th Infantry Batallion was wounded when members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) also shot at the Army’s light truck with assault rifles, said the same report, adding that Capt. Aguilar and his escorts were in a mission to deliver salaries of soldiers and paramilitary members in the said village.
Meanwhile, an enlisted serviceman and an officer, 1Lt. Bruno Hugo, was also wounded when he and a convoy of soldiers from the 57th Infantry Battalion were in nearby Luna Sur village, Makilala town. They were then to send assistance to the troop members who were ambushed in Bituan village, Tulunan town.
Members of the NPA’s Fronts 72 and 74 were behind the two attacks, said the report.
The NPA is the armed wing of the 44-year old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The Philippine government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) have been holding on and off peace talks since 1992.
The NDF refused to return to the negotiating table in 2004, after the Philippine government allowed the US and the European Union to include the CPP-NPA in the list of foreign terror groups.
Since then, the Philippine government and the NDF held only informal peace talks. The two parties resumed holding formal peace talks when President Benigno Aquino was elected in 2010.
But talks were temporarily ended when the Philippine government refused to release some 200 political prisoners, some of them served as peace consultants in past peace talks. It was one of the demands of the NDF for the resumption of the second wave of formal peace talks.
At the same time, the NDF refused to abide by the request of the Philippine government for the forging of a ceasefire agreement. The two camps must silence their guns to allow their respective leaders to hold peace talks, argued the Philippine government’s negotiators.
Talks between the two parties remained stalled since 2011. The NPA operate in the so-called “red controlled areas” in far flung villages nationwide, which are not reached by government services.
