RP-US WAR GAMES:CPP urges attacks on Balikatan in Bicol

By Delfin Mallari Jr.
Southern Luzon Bureau, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Filed Under: Guerrilla activities, Military

MANILA, Philippines—The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered its armed wing, the New People’s Army, to attack Filipino and American military forces that will be conducting joint military exercises in three Bicol provinces—Albay, Masbate and Sorsogon—in April.

“NPA units in Bicol are specifically instructed to launch as many tactical offensives as they can in many areas of the region in mockery of the Balikatan exercises and to prevent the US military from strengthening its foothold in the region,” the CPP said in a statement sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Sunday.

The CPP instructed all communist guerrilla units across the country as well to continue to stage tactical offensives against state security forces.

The current NPA strength has been pegged at 5,239 armed men by the military.

40th anniversary

The CPP celebrated its 40th year on Dec. 26 with the unveiling of a five-year plan to step up the insurgency and move closer to its goal of toppling the government to establish a Maoist state.

The communists have been conducting guerrilla warfare the past four decades against the government.

The rebel group urged the Filipino people to expose and protest the deployment of US troops to more areas of the country, including the Bicol region, by using the Balikatan joint exercises as a pretext.

The CPP said the plan to conduct the annual Balikatan joint military exercise not only in Bicol but in other parts of the country signaled heightened US military intervention in the local civil war.

“In doing so, the US seeks to pave the way for the future regular access of troops to guerrilla fronts in the Bicol region where the NPA operates,” the CPP said.

US spy planes

The CPP claimed that in the past three years, there have been several sightings of US spy planes in the vicinity of NPA guerrilla fronts in Central Luzon, southern Tagalog, Bicol, northeastern and southern Mindanao.

“Recently, US troops have become increasingly active and visible in the AFP’s (Armed Forces of the Philippines) combat operations against the NPA in Mindanao,” the CPP said.

Last week, Capt. Kelly Schmader, commander of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, visited the Bicol region to see to the final stages of surveying and planning for the scheduled Balikatan (meaning shoulder to shoulder), which is now on its 14th year in the country.

Last year’s Balikatan was held in Mindanao.

The Balikatan is part of the mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the United States. Its primary objective is to improve the “interoperability” of the two countries’ armed forces for mutual defense.

According to Schmader, some 400 American doctors, engineers and nurses, belonging predominantly to the military, will join the month-long exercise to provide humanitarian aid to depressed areas in the three Bicol provinces.

A military report deemed these provinces as hotbeds of the communist insurgency in the Bicol region.

Military officials in the region have assured the public that the aims of the exercises were “peace and development” and there would be no war games with US forces, only humanitarian projects in the form of medical missions and engineering works.

But the CPP dismissed the “no military exercise and only humanitarian works” as “pure hogwash.”

Specific objectives

“The US military does not carry out any operation or mission by any name without specific military objectives. Joint military exercises and humanitarian missions only serve as cover for US troops to gain access to the guerrilla fronts to carry out physical and social terrain mapping, conduct surveillance, recruit local agents and influence the local governments and social infrastructure,” the CPP said.

According to the CPP, retired Gen. Edilberto Adan, head of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement Commission, had already admitted that in conducting the forthcoming Balikatan exercises in the Bicol region, the US military has a specific objective of familiarizing its forces with guerrilla conditions and learning jungle combat operations in the area.

NPA ordered to launch offensives vs Balikatan

The Communist Party of the Philippines has ordered its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to conduct tactical offensives in Bicol to “mock” the upcoming RP-US Balikatan joint exercises there.

In a statement posd on its website, the CPP said no amount of US military support will help the “puppet” Arroyo regime’s “counter-revolutionary” war.

“NPA units in Bicol are specifically instructed to launch as many tactical offensives as they can in many areas of the region in mockery of the Balikatan exercises and to prevent the US military from strengthening its foothold in the region. NPA units should continue to intensify their tactical offensives against the puppet military forces nationwide,” it said.

The CPP said US support for the AFP’s Oplan Bantay Laya has not made the puppet regime and Armed Forces of the Philippines any more successful in fighting the NPA.

According to the CPP, government’s Oplan Bantay Laya has turned out to be a failure as the “people’s war” is “blazing forward, gathering strength, and winning more and more victories.”

CPP said the joint RP-US military exercises in Bicol this April signals heightening US military interventionism in the local civil war.

“In doing so, the US seeks to pave the way for the future regular access of US troops in guerrilla fronts in the Bicol region where the NPA operates,” it said.

The CPP contested the claim by officials of the US military and the Arroyo government that the US forces joining the Balikatan exercises in Bicol will not meddle in the “anti-insurgency” campaign.

It similarly contested claims that the participants in Balikatan will focus purely on humanitarian work, branding them “pure hogwash.”

“The US military does not carry out any operation or mission by any name without specific military objectives. Joint military exercises and “humanitarian missions” only serve as cover for US troops to gain access to the guerrilla fronts to carry out physical and social terrain mapping, conduct surveillance, recruit local agents and influence the local governments and social infrastructure,” it said.

CPP said retired General Edilberto Adan, head of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement Commission, admitted that in conducting the forthcoming Balikatan exercises in the Bicol region, the US military has a specific objective of familiarizing its forces with guerrilla conditions and learning jungle combat operations in the area.

Also, it said an advanced party of US and Philippine military officials have already begun last month their survey of the target areas, picked specifically for their conditions favorable to guerrilla warfare, mostly mountainuous jungle areas with wide access to sea waters.

“Since 2001, the US military has been heightening its interventionism in the Philippines, taking advantage of joint military exercises and ‘humanitarian missions.’ The US military has kept its presence in the Philippines permanent by rotating troops and stationing them in secluded sections of AFP camps and facilities, and using these as bases for their interventionist operations,” the CPP said. – GMANews.TV

Leftist rebels claim responsibility for ambush against Philippine official

From Sina.com

MANILA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) — Left-wing rebels said on Monday they were responsible for an ambush that left a Philippine official wounded, but alleged that she was not the target of the attack.

Elisa Kho, governor of the central province of Masbate, was injured in a blast in the province’s Cataingan town on Sunday noon. One of her escorts was also hurt in the ambush.

Kho’s convoy was on the way to Masbate City, capital of the province, when two bombs exploded at the left shoulder of the national highway in Cataingan.

“The governor was slightly wounded at her eyebrow caused by glass particles from the windshield of their vehicle which was shattered by the explosion,” said local police chief Reuben Theodore Sindac.

“She and her escort are both safe now,” he added.

Greg Banares, a spokesman of the New People’s Army (NPA), told a radio station on Monday that his group was behind the ambush, but insisted that the target was not the governor, but some policemen on the vehicle.

The 5,400-strong NPA has been waging a guerrilla war against the government since its founding in late 1960s. It halted peace talks with the government in 2003, irritated by the administration’s inaction to remove it from the U.S. government’s list of international terrorist organizations.

Last week, the rebels confirmed that they had seized three policemen in an ambush in Rizal province, only 20 kilometers east of Manila.

NPA says Masbate gov not target of ambush, offers apologies

Galing sa ABS CBN News Online:

The New People’s Army (NPA) unit in Masbate province has owned up to an ambush Sunday but said that their intended target was a police unit and not Masbate Gov. Elisa Olga Kho.

A statement released to media and signed by a Ka Greg Bañares of National Democratic Front (NDF) – Bicol said that the John Rapsing Command of the NPA launched the ambush against members of the 507 Police Provincial Mobile Group in Barangay Gahit in Cataingan town in Masbate province Sunday before noon.

Police said Kho’s convoy was plying the national road in Barangay Gahit when NPA rebels detonated two improvised explosive devices reportedly placed at the side of the road. The explosion shattered the windshield of Kho’s car.

The governor of Masbate province and one of her escorts were wounded in the attack. Initial reports said Kho sustained a minor wound on her eyebrow.

They were brought to Khokak beach resort where authorities said they were already safe.

The statement of the NDF official said that the van of Kho was following the vehicle of the police unit which he said was their target.

The NDF official offered in the statement the apologies of the NPA unit to the governor..

Police are now conducting pursuit operations against the alleged NPA rebels. Police forces were also deployed in the town of Palanas, near the boundary of Cataingan. 3

The communist rebels might have retreated to Barangays San Rafael and Cadulauan, police said.

The Samar Police Provincial Office has also been notified regarding the possible route of the fleeing communist troops. With a report from Jose Carretero, ABS-CBN Bicol

Layunin ng Balikatan Exercise sa Bikol: Nagtatago sa Tabing ng “Humanitarian Mission”

Pahayag sa Midya
Enero 11, 2009

Inililihis at pinagtatakpan sa publiko ng mga upisyal ng militar at civil defense (OCD) ang tunay na layunin at mga aktibidad ng BALIKATAN EXERCISE sa Bikol at pinalilitaw na ito ay purong “humanitarian mission” upang maging katanggap-tanggap sa publiko ang presensya ng tropang US.

Inamin mismo ng isang upisyal ng US Navy na tampok sa gagawing BALIKATAN EXERCISE sa Bikol ngayong Abril 2009 ang field exercise ng mga istap nito, joint military exercise, at “humanitarian mission”.

Ginagamit ng AFP at tropang US ang mga pakulo nitong “humanitarian mission” bilang tabing sa aktwal na paglahok ng tropang US sa mga operasyong military tulad ng reconaissance ops, paniniktik, pagsasanay, suportang lohistika at paglahok sa aktwal na kombat.

Kaugnay nito, magsasagawa ng sea games o naval exercise ang US Marines at Navy Seals sa karagatan at baybayin ng Brgy. Sawang, Dapdap, at Panisihan sa bayan ng Uson, Masbate.###

Greg Banares
NDF-Bikol