NPA ambush vs 84th IB in Davao City
NEW People’s Army members under the Mt. Apo Sub-regional Command lured company-sized soldiers of the 84th Infantry Battalion-10th Infantry Division to the guerrilla hideout in Purok 1, Baracatan, Toril district, Davao City. And when the fascist troops came on July 8 at 1:30 pm, Red fighters merely sidestepped and mounted an ambush position.
The NPA’s surprise attack killed six fascist troops and injured another six. After the one-hour firefight, the NPA also confiscated from the AFP unit one stag ARM bushmaster and one m203 grenade launcher, two military packs, two vests, two link ammunition of K3 machine gun, and one GPS.
The NPA’s successful tactical offensive in Toril, Davao City disproved hallucinations of AFP’s 10th Infantry Division commanding-general Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo who boasted last week that the NPA forces are thinning out, losing ground, and limited to merely seven towns in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley provinces. The successful ambush also refuted AFP claims late last year that their Peace and Development Outreach Program (PDOP) made headways in Toril and the contiguous Sta. Cruz town, enough to make these areas “NPA-free.”
Bernardo’s self-serving claims of accomplishment are merely to justify the huge and heavily purloined AFP budget and the funds funneled from mining and capitalists that finance the ongoing massive military operations in Southern Mindanao. Up to now, the AFP has failed to wipe out any single guerrilla front in the region and to prevent the NPA from forming more fighting and fully-armed platoons. The AFP has failed to stop Red fighters from persevering, prevailing, expanding and consolidating its mass base. The NPA vigorously implements social welfare services, the minimum program of revolutionary land reform, and revolutionary justice in its guerrilla bases and zones, thus enabling it to maintain and sustain its operations.
The AFP has miserably failed not only to debilitate the fighting capacity of the NPA but also failed to ease the discontent of the masses. The AFP’s dismal record contains increasing head count not of NPA members but of civilian victims of extra-judicial killings, torture and intimidation. On the other hand, the NPA’s successful tactical offensive in Toril, Davao City was not only due to its mastery in guerilla warfare, but also due to the wide and warm support of the masses who are not fooled by the AFP’s PDOP.
The undeniable reality is that the masses in the hinterland areas of Davao City and numerous parts in Southern Mindanao region and boundaries suffer from extreme poverty and have found no solace, relief or solution in the AFP’s PDOP. The masses barely survive from the exorbitant costs of rice and staple food, electricity and other basic services amid the continued onslaught of the economic crisis. They cherish the people’s army and are angered by the fascism of the 10th ID-AFP troops, its sham peace and development, and its loyalty towards the thieving and corrupt US-Aquino regime.
The AFP and the regime cannot stop the tactical offensives launched here and in other territories nationwide, nor can it impede the mounting pressure to oust Benigno Aquino, III from his throne. Its massive infusion of battle-weary troops and fascist soldiers in the region makes it even more isolated from the masses and can only lead to abject futility.