The following is from the website of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines:
NPA trounces AFP operations in Davao Oriental, 18 fascist troops wiped out in back-to-back Red Army ambuscades
Eighteen enemy soldiers were killed and more than 10 others were severely wounded following the back-to-back tactical offensives launched by the Red fighters of the Conrado Heredia Command-Front 20 Operations Command of the New People’s Army 27 and 28 August in Cateel and Boston towns in Davao Oriental.
A brigade-sized combat operation involving the Armed Forces of the Philippines´ 25th Infantry Battalion and 67th Infantry Battalion of the 1001st Brigade, and a formation of the Scout Rangers Company, were engaged by Red fighters in two separate ambushes, resulting to enemy casualties amounting to an undersized platoon.
Last 27 August, a platoon of the 25th IB-AFP that scoured the interior of Boston was squarely hit by Red fighters at 3:00 am in Barangay Sumilao. The dawn ambush felled 10 enemy soldiers and wounded many others.
About 36 hours later, a composite formation of the 67th IB-AFP and the Scout Rangers Company that forayed deep into guerilla territory in Sitio (sub-village) Buko-Buko Abehod, Cateel took a fatal beating at around 3:10 pm, 28 August. Confirmed killed were eight enemy soldiers and five others wounded after the 45-minute gunbattle.
The brigade-sized AFP operation’s main aim is to clear the ground for the unbridled economic plunder of big logging concessions and large-scale mining companies that span Cateel, Boston and the gold-rich Mt. Diwata range in Diwalwal, Monkayo. The mercenary AFP are the soldiers of big business plunderers out to destroy lives and the livelihood of the masses in the base areas. Unfortunately for them, the Red Army is fully prepared to meet their fascist incursions with tactical offensives.
Contrary to face-saving reports fed earlier by the AFP to the media, the Red Army safely withdrew from their positions with no casualty after the engagements.
In the wake of the AFP battlefield losses, the fascists vented their ire on civilians. AFP soldiers illegally apprehended and detained seven civilians in Boston and two others in Cateel. Civilians were forcibly taken as guides while others were subjected to psychological torture and made to sign surrender papers as NPA members. They were only released three days later after families and residents took to the Tactical Command Post of the operating AFP troops at Barangay Sta Fe, Cateel.
The success of the back-to-back NPA tactical offensives is due to the popular mass support being enjoyed by the Red Army. The breadth and depth of the revolutionary mass base and the NPA’s creative application of guerilla warfare forces the AFP to spread thin its combat troops into smaller, isolated formations, making them vulnerable targets to annihilative and attritive actions by the Red Army.
As expected, the swivel-chaired bigwigs of the 10th Infantry Division of the AFP in Camp Panacan, Davao City, have commenced their all-too familiar media blitz of half-truths and outright lies. But none of their pathetic and rehashed stories can deny the reality of the steady advance of the people’s democratic revolution as the enemy’s fascist intrusions into guerilla territories serving big business plunderers are actively confronted by the armed and unarmed resistance of the people and its revolutionary army.
By Roel Agustin II
Spokesman, Front 20 Operations Command
Conrado Heredia Command
New People’s Army-Southern Mindanao
