The rebels put up a strong resistance and their numbers caught government troops off guard, prompting them to call for reinforcement.

Major General Jose Maria Cuerpo, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, described the rebel group as significantly “large,” prompting the soldiers to request air support as they engaged in a firefight with the guerrilla forces in Sitio Dugyanan, Barangay Anticala in Butuan.

Cuerpo said the Philippine Air Force (PAF) dispatched a pair of Turkish-made T129B attack helicopters, which launched air strikes on rebel positions at the slopes of Mount Apo-apo.

After the smoke cleared and the dust settled, soldiers discovered the bodies of three rebels at the NPA camp, two of whom were female.

The fleeing rebels abandoned 15 high-powered firearms, including five AK 47 rifles, three M4 rifles, two M16 rifles with M203 grenade launchers, and four AR-18 rifles.

“The rebels fiercely resisted, compelling us to request air support to weaken their defenses,” said Brigadier General George Banzon, the commander of the Army’s 901st Brigade, who oversaw the military offensive.

Banzon said the soldiers initially opened fire on the communist rebels while they were preparing lunch in their camp, with some washing their clothes at a nearby creek.

He said the rebels regained their composure and fought back.

In Claveria town, Misamis Oriental, a female NPA rebel was also killed during a clash in Sitio Kalhaan, Barangay Minalwang on Wednesday afternoon, June 14, according to Colonel Christian Uy, the commander of the Army’s 58th Infantry Battalion.

Uy said the search for 15 other NPA rebels, who retreated from the scene of the encounter, is still ongoing.

Major Francisco Garello Jr., spokesperson for the 4th ID, said the military will work to identify the dead rebels once the bodies are brought to the town centers.
“At the moment, the bodies are still in the mountains. Once they are retrieved, we will ask former rebels to identify them,” Garello said. – Rappler.com

“My personal position is no. Matagal ko nang position yan, noong araw pa (That has long been my position, even before). And I think that’s the position of the security cluster at this time,” said Teodoro in a Palace press briefing on Thursday, June 8, two days after he took his oath as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first permanent defense secretary.

Teodoro was asked to react to the CPP’s National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)’s recent pronouncement that it was open to resuming peace talks under Marcos. The NDFP is the united front of the CPP which includes various revolutionary organizations.

Teodoro, who was defense secretary from 2007 to 2009 under former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said peace talks with the CPP and the NDFP would be a “subversion” of the country’s democratic processes. He insisted that the government was open to welcome back into the mainstream members of the CPP, NDFP, and the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP.

The new defense chief said he would still consult Marcos on the country’s official stance, even as he announced his “personal position.” Nearly a year into office, Marcos himself has not spoken up on whether he’s keen on resuming peace talks with the communists.

Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Romeo Brawner Jr., however, has said that Marcos ordered them to “finish off” the CPP-NPA.

Responding to Teodoro’s statement, Julie de Lima, interim chairperson of the NDFP’s negotiating panel, said on Friday, June 9: “It comes as no surprise that recently appointed Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro has always been against pursuing peace talks with the NDFP.”

She recalled that Teodoro “was one of the main implementors of Oplan Bantay Laya which is one of the bloodiest counterrevolutionary campaigns” under the previous Arroyo regime.

De Lima stressed that the continued “military presence and intervention” of the US here is “an obstacle to creating favorable conditions for peace negotiations.”

Teodoro said the government’s strategy is to convince the local communist movement to return to the mainstream, with the option of registering as a “legitimate political party” so long as there’s proof they’ve rejected “subversive” means in pursuing their political objectives.

The first time he was defense chief, Teodoro oversaw an all-out counter-insurgency campaign against the armed left.

Hope for peaceful dialogue was renewed in 2016, during the early years of former president Rodrigo Duterte but talks ended in 2019.

Duterte, father of the current vice president, then created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), whose campaigns have included the harassment and red-tagging of Filipino activists, journalists, and human rights workers. – Rappler.com

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The victims, identified as Rowel Lebico and Hersan Cabe of Barangay Quirino, were killed at around 11:30 am.

Second Lieutenant Joyce Ann Bayron, civil military officer of the Philippine Army’s 20th Infantry Battalion, told Rappler in an interview, “Nakasakay po ang dalawang biktima ng single motorcycle nang sumabog ang anti-personnel mine, allegedly nilagay ng NPA [New People’s Army]).”

(The two victims were riding a single motorcycle when an anti-personnel mine, allegedly planted by the NPA, exploded.)

Bayron also claimed that aside from the injuries suffered by the two victims from the explosion, they also allegedly suffered gunshot wounds.

“Nag-iimbestiga pa ngayon ang PNP (Philippine National Police) kung ano ang motibo, at inaantay din natin ang SOCO (Scene of the Crime of the Crime Operatives) result sa ginawa nilang pag-imbestiga (The PNP is still investigating the motive behind the incident, and we’re still waiting for the results of SOCO’s investigation),” Bayron said.

Lebico and Cabe worked on a farm-to-market road that connects the interior barangays of Las Navas. Bayron said this was not the first time a mine killed innocent civilians in Northern Samar.

On April 17, 2019, Armando Jay Raymond, 10, died in an anti-personnel mine explosion allegedly initiated by the NPA in Barangay San Miguel in Lavezares town. On April 3, 2022, a community support program team of the 20th Infantry Battalion was hit by a land mine explosion, killing two PNP personnel and injuring four others.

Meanwhile, in Barangay Magsaysay, Mapanas town, another explosion occurred and injured seven Army personnel on July 5, 2022. Fourteen days later, on July 19, 2022, a soldier died while five others were wounded in another mine explosion.

Lieutenant Colonel Joemar Buban, commanding officer of 20IB, said that the NPA attack is a clear violation of the Ottawa Convention (mine ban treaty), which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.

“The 20IB has been doing its best to help the former conflict-affected barangays through our Mobile Community Support and Sustainment Program Teams to achieve long-lasting peace and sustainable development in Northern Samar. But the NPA rebels’ recent anti-personnel mine attack shows violence and senseless killings, which does not contribute in improving the way of life of the Nortehanons,” Buban said

Buban also urged the Commission on Human Rights to investigate and release a statement on the alleged violations of the Ottawa Convention, International Humanitarian Law, and Republic Act No. 9851 by the NPA rebels in Northern Samar. – Rappler.com

Associate professor Ladylyn Lim-Mangada spoke to Rappler on Thursday, June 1, a day after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported that Sagdullas was one of four New People’s Army (NPA) rebels slain during a May 28 clash with members of the 43rd Infantry Battalion in the hinterlands of Brgy. Mabini, Catarman, Northern Samar.

The three others killed were identified by the military as Geraldine Teopinto alias Luz, the finance officer; Abigail Padula Baselga alias Moana, a medical officer; and Vicente Termo.

Sagdullas, who graduated with a degree in political science in 2017 from UP Tacloban, was Mangada’s student in several political courses and excelled in class, she said.

As a student leader, he consistently lent his voice to the poor, oppressed, and weak, she added.

Kind, eloquent

Sagdullas was “one of the kindest people I know,” his former classmate Ara Pacoma said.

“He was very helpful to his fellow students, a leader who always showed his willingness to lend a hand, and I never heard him complain even in the midst of so many daunting tasks as student council president.”

When asked by Rappler if he knew the student Sagdullas, a security guard of almost two decades at the said university recalled him as being polite and kind. The youth, he said, was a good public speaker and seemed untiring even in longer talks. 

Former student leaders who shared news of Sagdulla’s death mentioned his “eloquence” during council debates. They described him as having a “critical mind with a great talent for articulating points and arguments anchored on the best interest of the people.”

Kabataan party-list Representative Raoul Manuel on Twitter said, “Joshua was the chair of KASAMA sa UP (national alliance of UP student councils) when I served as Student Regent. Many students and people will remember Joshua not as a terrorist but as a defender and servant of the oppressed.”

Joining the NPA

After his graduation, the campus activist eventually became the Eastern Visayas secretary general of Bayan, the national militant coalition of sectoral organizations. He remained active in organizing youth groups.

Sagdullas was a regular user of Facebook, pushing statements of people’s organizations, and schedules of events. He combined condemnation of human rights violations and attacks on activists, and the Duterte government’s messy COVID-19 pandemic response, with lyrical notes on art, music, and authors he loved.

His social media presence abruptly stopped on June 8, 2020. 

Captain Jefferson Mariano, 8ID public affairs chief, said that year, Sagdullas joined the NPA as a full-time combatant.

He was among the combatants belonging to the NPA subregional guerrilla unit deployed in Northern Samar to reinforce the NPA front committee 2 dismantled by the military early 2023, said Mariano. 

He was a political officer, Mariano added. It was not clear where Sagdullas was operating before that.

A former comrade identified the bodies of the four rebels slain on May 28. Alias Kurati had surrendered on April 30, 2023, to officials of Barangay Santander, Bobon, Northern Samar after receiving serious injuries in a firefight that killed seven rebels.  

Turning point

Military officials blamed Asia’s longest communist insurgency and its “pointless ideology” for the death of a promising young man. 

The public information office of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division (8ID) quoted its commander Majr General Camilo Z. Ligayo as saying that Sagdulla “could have had a better future ahead and be an active partner of the government in nation-building, helping the people in the community if he had not been recruited with the terrorist group.”

But Bayan national secretary-general Renato Reyes told Rappler on June 1 that the government pushed Sagdullas to take up arms.

“The dire circumstances in the province, including the arrests and detention of activists, including many Bayan leaders, based on trumped-up charges, is what forced many to go underground and find other ways of resistance,” the activist leader said on June 1.

Rappler researched what was happening in Tacloban and other areas of Eastern Visayas in the last year before Sagdullas’ disappearance from legal activism. This is what we found:

June 7, 2020

A day before his last Facebook post, Sagdullas asks friends to report a fake account bearing his name and picture. It launched in April of that year. But it gets his attention only when a spate of fake accounts surface after the arrests of activists during a June 5 protest against the then-still-unpassed anti-terror bill.

Rappler on June 7 also reports on the trend, which started at the University of the Philippines  Cebu and then spread to other UP campuses. The newer fake accounts, however, are still blank when activists report these.

The fake account paints Sagdullas as a rabid supporter of then-president Rodrigo Duterte, who had ordered stepped-up anti-insurgency campaigns in the islands of Samar and Negros in the Visayas, and Bicol – for example, the fake Sagdullas justifying the killings of people violating the curfew imposed as part of the government’s COVID-19 lockdown.

In bad English, the post says people who feel threatened by Duterte’s shoot them dead order must be violators.

Why did this alarm the activist?

“He feared it was setting a trend for a murder that the state would then blame on the NPA, as there were hints of this new tactic,” says a former Eastern Visayas rights worker forced to leave the region for security reasons.

May 30, 2023

Sagdullas shares a call for justice for Secretary-General Carlito “Ka Karlets” Badion, an urban poor leader whose dead body was found on a highway in Ormoc City on May 28.

The news outfit Bulatlat reports that Badion, the long-time secretary general of Kadamay, was red-tagged and received death threats two days before his killing.

May 29, 2023

“Stop the killings!,” Sagdullas calls out as he shares a Manila Today report on the May 26 killing of  farmers’ leader Allan “Mano Boy” Aguilando, in Barangay New Rizal, Catarman, Northern Samar.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) says the 43rd Infantry Battalion claimed Aguilando died in an encounter.

A June 7 report by the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas says that “the allegations against him are baseless and the so-called recovered gun planted in the manner of Tokhang killings and other murders of peasants such as in Negros.”

KMP says Aguilando was the 251st farmer-victim of extrajudicial killing (EJK) under the Duterte administration.

May 27, 2003

The Army reports the abduction on May 27 of three “peacebuilders” by the NPA in Canvais village, Motiong, Samar.

The Army’s 87th Infantry Battalion claims Cosme Cabangunay and his sons Jevie and Jason were members of the Motiong Peacebuilders, a group of former rebels who joined the peace and development efforts of the government.

The NDF in the region denies the allegations. 

“We are aware that the Cabangunay men were earlier forced to ‘surrender’ by the 87th IB even though they were merely peacefully farming in their community. We fear for their lives and demand that the military immediately surface and release them,” says a statement by Fr. Santiago “Ka Sanny” Salas, then-spokesperson of the regional underground group.

April 12, 2020

Sagdullas shares a PressOne report of officials of Balangiga town in Eastern Samar denying the 8ID’s claim that NPA rebels had raided relief goods meant for the COVID-19 aid program. Even the local police deny the claim after conducting an investigation.

March 10, 2020

Sagdullas shares a Change.org petition announcement of a Quezon City event supporting community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who was arrested in Tacloban City, along with four human rights defenders on February 7, 2020 in Tacloban City.

Cumpio remains in jail three years after her arrest. He also defends Cumpio in a March 7 post.

December 19, 2019

Sagdullas posts that Northern Samar has experienced 11 cases of politically-motivated killings since then-president Duterte issued Memorandum Order 32 in November 2018 to halt the “state of lawlessness” in Bicol, Samar, Negros Island. 

November 27, 2019 

Sagdullas mentions the killing of  Commission on Elections (Comelec) employee and former community journalist Maureen Japzon.

Japzon, the founder of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Eastern Visayas chapter, was shot seven times by suspects on board motorcycles on October 15, 2019 near her workplace in McArthur, Leyte.

On the same day that Japzon was killed, the human rights group Karapatan says Renee Superior, a village councilor in Libungao, Kananga, Leyte was also reported killed. 

“Several other barangay officials have been targeted in the region for supporting campaigns against militarization,” says Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

November 22, 2019

Sagdullas posts the Bayan Eastern Visayas statement, challenging some local media that had signed a Manifesto of Commitment to Duterte’s Memo 32 and joined the military’s red-tagging efforts in statements, videos, and photo captions.

“Word usage includes ‘confirmed’, ‘known’ and other similar words as if to denote or deduce that the illegal tagging of our organizations as ‘mere legal fronts’ of the CPP-NPA-NDF is valid,” the statement says.  – Rappler.com

Captain Jefferson Mariano, spokesperson of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division in Catbalogan, Samar, identified one of the two arrested suspects as Rosita Solayao Taboy, also known as Laling.

Mariano identified the other suspect only as “Beto,” Taboy’s husband.  A police mugshot, however, showed that the suspect is Antonio Pondang Legaspi.

Mariano said Taboy is the former secretary of the Regional Organizational Department (ROD) and a member of the Executive Committee (EXECOM) of the CPP-NPA’s Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee (EVRPC). 

She has been serving as a staff member of the National Democratic Front’s finance commission, according to Mariano.

Legaspi, meanwhile, is believed to be a demolition expert of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s National Operations Command.

Authorities said they found a caliber .45 pistol, a caliber .38 revolver, a bomb, blasting caps, assorted cellphones, a laptop, and subversive documents when they searched the couple’s San Jose del Monte house.

The military said the suspects have pending multiple criminal cases and have a standing warrant of arrest for multiple murder issued by the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) of Basey, Samar on October 8, 1990.

They were also ordered arrested for a multiple frustrated murder case in Paranas, Samar in 1995, and for a similar case in Laoang, Northern Samar.

Mariano said the couple was allegedly responsible for numerous crimes committed in the Eastern Visayas region, including the burning of a Smart Communications tower in Catbalogan City, Samar on January 6, 2000; the assassination of militiaman Danilo Nuguit on September 27, 2006; and an ambush that killed 10 soldiers and a nine-year-old child on December 14, 2010.

The suspects will be brought to Camp Crame.

Major General Camilo Ligayo, the commander of 8th ID, said the suspects’ arrest would hasten the downfall of the NPA in Eastern Visayas, and was a significant development in bringing the couple to justice. – Rappler.com

The 62nd Infantry Battalion said the PAF sent an S-70i CUH Blackhawk and an element AW109 on Sunday, May 21, to support ground forces engaging rebels in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental.

The 62 IB said it killed four guerrillas in Guihulngan.

The Negros Oriental clash came a day after the May 20 encounter in Sitio Napulian and Sitio Oway Oway, Brgy Quintin Remo, Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental.

A separate statement from the military claimed they killed five rebels in Moises Padilla town.

The military also claimed it recovered from the Moises Padilla encounter scene one M16 rifle, 1 KG9 machine pistol, 2 cal 38 pistols, 1 UZI machine pistol, 2 homemade 12 gauge shotguns, 4 rifle grenade ammunition, a bandolier, other ammunition, and rebel paraphernalia.

‘Peace engagement’

In between combat operations, the PAF and 62IB dropped off information materials of the “Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP)” to “intensify information operations” in the hinterlands of Moises Padilla and Guihulngan City.

Earlier, the military also held what it called “localized peace engagement” with residents of Brgy Quintin Remo, including more than 200 displaced families comprising more than 800 individuals.

They were allowed home after the distribution of food packs but not before military officials warned against rebels using deep-seated social-economic problems to recruit farmers and youth.

The military said the families of the alleged rebels killed in Moises Padilla, belonging to the SYP (Sandatahang Yunit Propaganda) Platoon, Central Negros 1 – Komiteng Rehiyon Negros Cebu Bohol Siquijor, have already claimed their bodies.

The government paid for the caskets, said the military statement.

Meanwhile, the Guihlungan City Task Force-ELCAC said that aside from burial needs, “families of the dead rebels were given food packs from CSWD, free fertilizer from City Agriculture, and P3,000.00 each family. Inday Espina-Varona/Rappler.com

Año said this following the announcement of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s designation as co-vice-chairperson of the NTF-ELCAC, a government arm created by her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, that gained notoriety because of its penchant for red-tagging citizens and groups critical of those in power.

The Department of Education (DepEd) itself has caught flak for red-tagging critics since the younger Duterte took over as its head.

Año told a media briefer that Marcos’ “marching orders to the NTF ELCAC is clear: Sustain the whole-of-nation approach to peace and development to prevent communist terrorists, their front organizations, and other lawless elements from recruiting, regrouping, and regaining power.”

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“We truth tag, not red tag. We bring you the truth,” said Assistant Solicitor-General Angelina Miranda, the head of the task force’s legal cooperation cluster.

Miranda asserted that “red-tagging” – the practice, often undertaken by State actors, especially law enforcement agencies, in publicly labeling individuals, groups, or institutions as having affiliations with communist rebels – is a “legally non-existent” word. 

This, she said, was the reason why cases of red-tagging filed during the Duterte administration were dismissed, and another filed after Marcos Jr. took over was sent by the Supreme Court to the Court of Appeals and, subsequently, to the Office of the Solicitor General.

In 2021, however, SC justices grilled government lawyers as a result of NTF-ELCAC’s relentless red-tagging, as they pointed out the risks of labeling people and groups without basis.

A year later, the High Tribunal cautioned that inciting violence against judges, in response to the threats made by former NTF-ELCAC spokesperson Lorraine Badoy against a Manila judge, may be seen as contempt of court.

Año said Vice President Duterte’s new task would complement her efforts as education secretary in keeping New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and their support groups away from basic education institutions.

He also said Duterte was seen as “invigorating” by the task force as it works to further weaken communist rebel forces, and proceed “towards sustained development” down to the barangay levels.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Andres Centino said the military has seen the NPA significantly weakened since the NTF-ELCAC was created by Duterte’s father through Executive Order No. 70. From 89 NPA guerrilla fronts in 2019, only 22 are left, he said.

“We were able to dismantle 67 guerrilla fronts,” Centino said.

Of the 22 remaining fronts, he said 20 have weakened and lost their mass base support, and only two others in Northern Samar can still boast of having mass bases.

Centino said this was the reason troops from Western Mindanao were deployed to Northern Samar to finish off the two active guerrilla fronts there. – Rappler.com

The Philippine National Police Special Action Force reported that they had an encounter with 20 members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Sitio Ibaliw, Barangay Capacuhan, Palapag in Northern Samar, on Friday afternoon, May 5. 

Two civilians, Joel Balading Recare and Oscar “Oca” Alastoy, were killed in the operation.

CHR condemned the killing. Eastern Visayas Director Desiree Pontejos told Rappler in an interview on Monday, May 8, that no circumstances or ideology can justify violations of human rights, more so any killing.

However, Pontejos also said due process must still be afforded to anyone who allegedly commits an offense.

Seeking justice, the families of the victims claimed Recare and Alastoy were not members of the NPA but were chainsaw operators for a logging operation in the area. – Jazmin Bonifacio/Rappler.com

“We express deep concern for the safety and well-being of Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil de Jesus,” said Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) in a May 3 urgent alert.

CHRA said the last reported contact from their peers was last Friday, 9 pm, somewhere in Taytay, Rizal.

The CHRA also appealed for public support to locate them and ascertain their situation.

“We believe that state security units have them in custody and fear for their safety and well-being. We urge whoever holds them to surface them immediately, respect their rights and treat them humanely,” the group said.

Capuyan is an Igorot from La Trinidad, Benguet, while De Jesus, a resident of Bulacan, last communicated with his family at 7:36 pm on April 28, according to his mother’s social media post.

“Napakahirap para sa aming pamilya ang bagay na ito. Ilang araw nang dala-dala namin ang matinding pag-aalala. Pinipilit na maging normal ang pagharap sa lahat ngunit sa likod ay puno ng paghihinagpis. Sana ay magkaroon na ng linaw ang paghahanap,” De Jesus’ mother, Ditz, said in the post.

(This is very hard for our family. We have been deeply worried for several days now. We try our best to face all these despite our pain. We hope we can see the light in our search.)

Rebel leader?

Capuyan is among the individuals named in the list of alleged leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army released by the Department of National Defense and Department of the Interior and Local Government. Authorities are offering an P1.85-million bounty for his arrest.

Government agencies claim that the 56-year-old Capuyan is an ranking officer of the Chadli Molintas Command NPA Ilocos Cordillera.

Capuyan was among the more than 600 individuals named in the Department of Justice petition to proscribe the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization. His name was removed when state prosecutors trimmed the number of respondents to eight. A Manila court junked the petition in September 2022.

He was also implicated in the February 2015 New People’s Army ambush against a military and police convoy in Quirino, Ilocos Sur, resulting in five soldiers’ killed and six others wounded

Student leaders

Capuyan and De jesus were former University of the Philippines Baguio students.

Capuyan served as the editor-in-chief of the student publication, Outcrop, and the League of Filipino Students chairperson in the early 1980s.

De Jesus, a Communication Major in Journalism cum laude, was the chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Students and the UP Baguio Council of Leaders before graduating in 2016. He also served as the Cordillera regional coordinator of the National Union of Students of the Philippines.

According to his family’s post, he is currently the information and networking officer of the Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples.

Leia Castro-Margate, a former instructor of De Jesus in UP Baguio, described him as a “good writer.”

“He was the kind of student you would be proud of as a teacher, didn’t neglect his studies while still serving the people outside school work. He is not just as activist for show but someone who walks the talk,” she said in an online interview.

“He was very humble and down to earth,” Castro-Margate added. – Rappler.com

Captain Jefferson Mariano, chief of the 8th Infantry Division (8ID) Public Affairs Office, said the operation, which was coordinated with the local police, was conducted after civilians tipped the “passing” of the armed rebels in the outskirts of said village.

Captain Mariano said more or less 40 rebel-members of the Sub-Regional Guerilla Unit (SRGU) and remnants of the dismantled Front Committee-2 (FC-2), Sub-Regional Committee (SRC) Emporium, Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee (EVRPC) led by Mario Sevillano alias Durok, a notorious NPA leader who is allegedly behind numerous atrocities in the areas of Northern Samar, clashed with troops under 803rd Brigade early morning, today.

“The terrorist’s hideouts were heavily fortified and surrounded by prohibited anti-personnel mines that prompted the troops to call for close air and artillery support,” Mariano said.

After the gun battle, which lasted about 30 minutes, government soldiers recovered seven unidentified cadavers and seized one R4 rifle, two M16 rifles, one AK47 rifle, an anti-personnel mine banned by international humanitarian law, and subversive documents.

“Clearing efforts are ongoing as of this reporting and troops on the ground see heavy bloodstains along their route of withdrawal which indicates” the suffering of heavy casualties. Mariano said.

The 8ID could not provide photos or identification of the casualties as troops are still in the area processing the encounter site.

Meanwhile, Mariano said in a statement that Bobon Mayor Reny Celespara are calling for the remaining members of the NPA to come down and surrender to the law.

Celespara, as quoted by the military, called on the NPA members to surrender and help the government in its initiatives.

“Ang gobyerno lokal, probinsya, at national ay naririto po, handang tumulong sa inyong pagbabagong-buhay at upang maipagpatuloy ang progreso ng ating bayan para sa inyong pamilya at sa buong bayan,” Celespara said. (The local, provincial, and national governments are here, ready to help in building you a new life, and so you can continue the country’s progress, for your families and for the whole country.)

JTF Storm and 8th Infantry Division Commander Major General Camilo Ligayo said the success of the operation was made possible through the recent efforts to clear the barangays in which they operated in.

“We urge the remaining members of [the NPA] to lay down their arms and go home to their families; the government is willing and eager to help you to start a normal life,” Ligayo added.

The military said the group encountered by the 803rd Infantry Brigade is notorious for several atrocities, such as ambuscades, extortions, and killings in Northern Samar. – Rappler.com

Ricky Bautista is an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow