No let-up in AFP offensive vs insurgents in Sorsogon

MANILA, Philippines - There has been no let-up in the operations of government security forces in Sorsogon, as communist rebels threaten to launch counter-attacks to retaliate for the killing of its key leaders in an encounter in Juban town last week.

“Even without them (rebels) issuing that warning, we know it already and I have directed that sustained but deliberate operations be continuously launched against these rebels. The best defense is relentless offensive operations,” said Col. Joselito Kakilala, commander of the Army’s 903rd Infantry Brigade based in Sorsogon.

Kakilala said the ongoing military operations are specifically directed at the New People’s Army’s Celso Dominguez Command headed by Andres Hubilla, alias Ka Magno. 

Hubilla’s group, composed of at least 45 regular fighters, despite reinforcements from the NPA regional unit, is currently disorganized as Hubilla has left them on their own to escape the continuing Army dragnet.

Hubilla were among the 12 NPA rebels who were able to escape from last week’s fighting that left eight of their comrades dead, including National Democratic Front-Bicol spokesman Frankie Joe Soriano, alias Greg Bañares, and his wife Christine Puche, alias Ka Nel, and Romero Añonuevo, alias Ka Nene, one of the rebel hit men behind the killings of former left-wing labor leader Felimon Lagman and former NPA chieftain Romulo Kintanar.

“The CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) and all revolutionary forces vow to exact justice and punish the perpetrators of this massacre. It calls on all units of the NPA to carry out more tactical offensives to defend the people, particularly the peasant masses in Sorsogon and the Bicol region, who are being subjected to more severe violations of human rights as the AFP intensifies its Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression,” the CPP-NPA said in a statement.

But citing intelligence reports, Kakilala said Hubilla could not carry out the CPP directive as he has vacated his P10-million mansion in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Casiguran, Sorsogon.