Philippines: New People’s Army lands blow on U.S.-backed Duterte regime armed forces
According to reports, the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA) successfully ambushed a platoon of the 15th Infantry Battalion last Wednesday afternoon, July 8, in Brgy. Pinggot, Ilog Town, Negros Occidental, killing at least 12 AFP soldiers and wounding four others.
In a statement, red fighters of the Armando Sumayang Jr. Command (ASJC) of the New People’s Army’s Southwest Negros Front said that the NPA action was in response to the clamor of peasant masses in Southwest Negros seeking redress from the growing cases of arson, destruction of crops, illegal arrest, fake surrender and other rights abuses and criminal acts perpetrated by the elements of the 15th Infantry Battalion and the 32nd DRC, which have intensified military operations in the rural communities of Kabankalan City, Ilog, Hinobaan, Candoni and Cauayan since April this year.
The U.S.-backed government of President Duterte is facing growing opposition from the rural- based people’s war, spearheaded by the Communist Party of the Philippines, and a host of national democratic mass movements.