AFP-NPA Clash in Negros Shatters Christmas Truce

Was it a raid or routine security patrol? A Dec. 20 clash between Army troops and an NPA unit in the Negros Occidental town of Isabela left two guerrillas dead and one soldier dead. The skirmish broke out barely five days after government declared a Christmas ceasefire.

By Karl G. Ombion
Bulatlat

BACOLOD CITY - In the early morning of Dec. 20, an encounter took place in Hacienda Emma, Barangay (village) Camang-camang, 5 kms from Isabela town proper or around 90 kms southeast of this capital. Killed in the encounter were two guerrillas of the New People’s Army (NPA), Emman Suerte and Miller Sabio, and Army Pfc. Esmael Arcangeles.

Six other Army troopers were seriously wounded.

The skirmish took place barely five days after the government declared a unilateral ceasefire. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared the unilateral truce with the NPA on Dec. 16 to January 5 next year.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in command of the NPA, on the other hand, issued its own unilateral ceasefire on Dec. 22 and will end Jan. 2.

The Dec. 20 clash sparked charges and counter-charges of ceasefire violation.

Preventive security patrol

Col. Jogy Leo Fojas, commanding officer (CO) of 303rd Brigade described the Dec. 20 incident as a “chance encounter” making it a non-violation of government’s own unilateral ceasefire.

Fojas said two platoons of the 11th IB’s Charlie Company led by 1Lt. Van Kristoffer Sumbeling and 2nd Lt. Chester Barela were on “preventive security patrol” in the area near their detachment.

In a separate statement, however, Lt. Col. Abraham Bagasin, commander of the 11th IB, said that the troops were responding to a tip-off that an NPA company was massing up near Isabela. The NPA guerrillas, Bagasin said, were gearing up for an assault of the town.

Bagasin said that his troops were fired upon first by the guerrillas from a sugarcane field where they were encamped. Citing their ceasefire general guidelines, he insisted that the troops did not violate the ceasefire as “the SOMO (Suspension of Military Operations) does now cover law enforcement and shall be without prejudice to actions aimed at protecting the people, communities, army installations, against insurgent attacks.”

In a radio interview, Senior Insp. Alexander Muñoz, Isabela police chief, on the other hand, said that the Dec. 20 incident “was a legitimate joint military operation by the army and police, after they received reports of the insurgents’ presence near the town proper.”

Raid

Fred Cana of the human rights alliance Karapatan in Negros, called it a “raid.” Citing Karapatan’s own investigation immediately after the clash, Cana said that the army troops were far from their detachment, and that the sugarcane field where the NPAs were based was 5 kms away from the town proper.

These were indications, he said, that the army troopers were not simply on a routine patrol.

Cana also charged the army with human rights violations, citing cases of illegal searches on the house of sugarworker Enriquito Bolhano and other villagers, divestment of their possessions, killing of cow, and “terrorizing the people in the area.”

Treacherous

In a press statement on Dec. 26, Ka (comrade) JB Regalado of the Leonardo Panaligan Command of the BHB-Larangan Gerilya Uno (NPA First Guerrilla Front), accused the AFP of “treacherously violating its own unilateral ceasefire.”

“How can it be an encounter when a platoon-sized unit of the Charlie Company of the 11th IB were well prepared, and backed by blocking forces in several areas, with an Armored Personnel Carrier and a Rio packed of soldiers, and even set up checkpoints in strategic entry and exit points. SOMO in words, but operations in deeds,” Regalado added.

Regalado belied army claims that the NPA was planning to raid the Isabela town, saying “an oversized squad of NPA Red Fighters - not 40 or more as claimed by the army - was in the area doing mass work, and not preparing to assault the town, nor the army and police detachments.”

In 1985, Isabela and the headquarters of Scout Rangers company beside it, were raided and overrun by a company of NPA fighters. Scores of Rangers were killed, including their commander, and several high-powered rifles and thousands of ammunition were hauled in the operation. Bulatlat

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