TACLOBAN CITY, May 26-- The Philippine Army has
reported clashes with the communist rebels in Samar provinces Friday morning
just a day after the Communist Party of Philippines asked its armed wing, the
New People’s Army (NPA), to launch nationwide attack against government troops.
At 8:30 a.m., soldiers of the 43rd Infantry
Battalion led by 2nd Lt. Jermaine Gentiles encountered about 20 members of the
New People’s Army (NPA) in Mahayag village, Matuguinao, Samar.
“There were no confirmed casualties on both sides,”
the Army’s 8th Infantry Division said in a statement.
A former local government official, who asked not
to be named, said that people in Matuguinao town were scared of recent clashes
between soldiers and rebels.
“We heard firing of heavy artillery guns just this
morning. Some people in villages fled to the town center out of fear,” she said
in text message.
On May 16, an army corporal died in a clash between
NPA and soldiers also in Mahayag village.
The 15-minute firefight erupted when soldiers
chased a group of communist rebels asking for food and medicines from
villagers.
Matuguinao, a 5th class farming town is about 105
kilometers north of this city. Most of its 20 villages are infested by rebels
due to poor road networks and thick forest.
In a separate incident, the army reported that a platoon
of soldiers encountered about 10 armed rebels in remote Sta. Fe village, Gen.
Macarthur, Eastern Samar around 7:00 a.m. on Friday, which triggered a
five-minute firefight.
No casualty on the government side. The army has
yet to find out if there was any injury on the NPA side.
Samar Island is known to be one of the hotbeds of
armed rebels in the country. Several encounters between the army and NPA had
been reported in three provinces in the past years.
The CPP ordered on Wednesday tactical offensives against
the government in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of
martial law in Mindanao effective May 23. (Sarwell Q. Meniano & Jazmin
Bonifacio/PNA)
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