Reds’ turf war turning bloody

CAMP AQUINO, Tarlac — Rivalry had intensified between armed rebel factions of CPP-founder Jose Maria Sison, popularly known as "reaffirmists" and Central Luzon-based "rejectionists," of which some have been turning into bloody clashes, the military said.

Major General Rodolfo Garcia, commanding general of the Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) said the mainstream Communist Party of the Philippines-led New Peoples Army (CPP-NPA) and the Marxist Leninist Party of the Philippines — led Rebolusyunaryong Hukbong Bayan (MLPP-RHB) have turned their rivalry in Zambales and Bataan into a bloody "turf war." He said, citing documents from seized camps of the NPA that a large number of its forces from Aurora province, also in Central Luzon, are being deployed to Central Luzon to battle RHB’s increasing threat.

At least three armed encounters between the NPA and RHB have happened, the most recent was on Saturday when both groups engaged in a gunfight in barangay Talip-tip, Bulacan town, Bulacan. On March 25, RHB and NPA rebels fought in sitio Bungao, barangay Salas, Palauig, Zambales. On Sept. 1, 1999, seven RHB rebels were killed in a firefight with the NPA in Morong, Bataan.

Garcia said RHB has only about 300 armed followers in Pampanga, Bataan and Zambales easily outnumbered by about a thousand NPAs in the whole of Central Luzon under the ‘reaffirmist’ group.

"The break-away forces have been contesting the Zambales area with the NPA, although both have been exactly doing the same like extortion and instilling fear in villages," Army Lt. Colonel Domingo Tutaan Jr., commanding officer of the Balanga, Bataan-based 24th Infantry Battalion. He added that the RHB and the NPA have been tipping the military with information against each faction’s locations and activities. — Artemio Dumlao