ZAMBOANGA CITY, 9 April 2005 — Government troops have captured four communist insurgents who were extorting illegal taxes from a village in the southern Philippine province of Compostela Valley, an official said yesterday.
Maj. Alexis Bravo of the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division said the four New People’s Army (NPA) members were in the village of Klangking in Laak town on Wednesday when cornered. Irate villagers secretly tipped off the military on the presence of the insurgents, said Bravo.
The insurgents did not resist arrest when they were surrounded by soldiers, who disguised themselves as farmers. Troops seized from them four assorted handguns and anti-government propaganda, Bravo said.
He said the four admitted being NPA members and told interrogators that the money they collected in the village would be used to help finance their activities to destabilize the government.
Five government soldiers were also wounded in a clash with communist insurgents over the weekend in San Agustin town in Surigao del Sur province after NPA forces attacked patrolling troops in the village of Bulisan.
Fighting between security and rebel forces have been reported the past weeks in the southern Philippines, with the military saying the skirmishes were triggered by enemy attacks.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging a secessionist war in the last 30 years with the aim of toppling the government and install a Maoist state in the country.
Rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal has renewed calls for an armed struggle against the Arroyo government. He also urged insurgents to continue their attacks against military targets across the country.
The United States and the European Union blacklisted the CPP-NDF and the NPA on Manila’s recommendation and have included them in the foreign terrorist lists and froze its assets abroad.
