Nolcom expects NPA-RHB rivalry in Central Luzon to get bloodier

CAMP AQUINO, Tarlac — Military officials here expect the bloody conflict between two rival communist groups in Central Luzon to escalate further following Saturday night’s aborted clash between their fighters in Pampanga.

The conflict would likely take place within the triangular boundaries of Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Bulacan, where there is fierce competition between the mainstream New People’s Army (NPA) and its splinter group, the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB), for grassroots support and "revolutionary taxes" on local folk.

This situation has prompted Maj. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, chief of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), to deploy more troops in the eastern towns of Pampanga to protect villagers from a "protracted showdown" between the NPA and the RHB.

Lt. Col. Preme Monta, Nolcom spokesman, said elements of the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion have been ordered to take "defensive positions" in Sta. Ana, Pampanga and in adjacent towns and up to Mt. Arayat.

The 49th Military Intelligence Company, on the other hand, was directed to intensify intelligence gathering on both rebel groups.

Last Saturday night, Monta said fighters of the NPA’s Sta. Ana-Arayat Guerrilla Front were ordered by the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Northeastern Pampanga Provincial Party Committee to wipe out their RHB rivals operating in Sta. Ana.

The RHB is the armed wing of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP), a breakaway faction of the mainstream Maoist movement led by former members of the CPP’s Central Luzon Regional Party Committee.

Upon learning of the aborted clash between the NPA and RHB, Garcia immediately deployed 69th IB troops to Sta. Ana to prevent the guerrillas from harming civilians.

An undetermined number of heavily armed NPA rebels under the command of one Ka Dario/Ka Billy, retreated from the area after learning about the soldiers’ presence.

But the RHB fighters engaged the government troopers in a 30-minute gunfight in Barangay San Roque, also in Sta. Ana, which resulted in the killing of four guerrillas, three of them women.