Military orders all-out offensive vs NPA in Sorsogon

MANILA, Philippines - The most senior military commander in Sorsogon province on Wednesday said that he has ordered an all-out, but deliberate military operations against the New People's Army (NPA).

“Even without them (NPAs) issuing that warning, we know it already and I have directed a sustained but deliberate operations be continuously launched against these rebels. The best defense is relentless swarming offensive operations” said Col. Joselito Kakilala, commander of the Army’s 903rd Brigade based in the province.

Kakilala was referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) national leadership's order to its fighters to launch attacks against the government to avenge the deaths of their comrades.

Last week, the military killed eight key provincial and regional leaders in a 35-minute fighting in Barangay Calamayon, Juban.

Kakikala said that the ongoing military operations are specifically directed towards the NPA’s Celso Dominguez Command headed by Andres Hubilla alias Ka Magno.

He said that the rebel group, composed of 45 more or less regular fighters, is currently disorganized because their commander (Ka Magno) left them on their own to escape the continuing Army dragnet.

Ka Magno was among the 12 NPAs who were able to escape in last week’s fighting that left eight other key provincial and regional leaders dead, among them the National Democratic Spokesman in Bicol Region Frankie Joe Soriano alias Ka Greg Banares, Banares’ wife Christine Puche, alias Ka Nel and Romero Anonuevo, alias Ka Nene, one of the gunmen who assassinated former left-wing labor leader Felimon "Popoy" Lagman, and former NPA chieftain Romulo Kintanar.

“The CPP and all revolutionary forces vow to exact justice and punish the perpetrators of this massacre. It calls on all units of the NPA to carry out more tactical offensives to defend the people,  particularly the peasant masses in Sorsogon and the Bicol region, who are being subjected to more severe violations of human rights as the AFP intensifies its Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression,” the CPP-NPA declared.