The recent ambush staged by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) members against 14th Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Division, Philippine Army troops in a mountainous part of Catbalogan City, Samar on the evening of November 27 displayed a barbaric act that needs to be condemned unceasingly.
On a higher degree CPP-NPA-NDF atrocities did not only happened in the province of Samar but also in other areas where development have given priority by the local government units nowadays.
I was astonished that even until now though the use of landmines has been banned by the international communities, communist rebels in our country continue doing their intolerance with that call.
On that day, the soldiers onboard their truck going back to camp from withdrawing monthly food allowance were ambushed with the use of landmines and high powered firearms by the members of CPP-NPA. Residents in the area were so nervous upon hearing that deafening blast that killed two soldiers and wounding three others. Members of rebel groups did not even considered the safety of civilian commuters plying the highway and the nearby residents in case that their landmines will malfunction.
The most disgusting is that the communist rebels did not only use treachery against the government troops but they also robbed them of their personal belongings and took away almost P2 million cash for the soldiers one month food allowance.
They did not only become bandits but also a devil’s advocate by propagating violence in Samar areas who once struck by that dreadful super typhoon Yolanda.
They have nothing to be proud of because their actions are not heroic wherein the true victims are the innocent civilians. Victims in the sense that they worsen poverty and hinder the development and progress in the area.
Let us do our share to denounce them and do our part to support the government’s program for them to return to the fold of law. — ROSALINDA T. RAMIREZ, Catbalogan City, Samar