Military launches airstrikes on alleged

NPA lair in Northern Samar

The Philippine Air Force drops 500-pound bombs on an encampment of alleged communist
guerrillas.

MANILA, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) attacked what it said was
a “confirmed encampment” of the New People’s Army (NPA) on Saturday morning, October
26, in a remote area of Barangay Caputoan, Las Navas, Northern Samar.

Supersonic FA-50 jets from the Philippine Air Force carried out “surgical airstrikes,” dropping
500-pound bombs on what was believed to be the lair of around 50 NPA rebels led by a certain
Ceriaco Jerusalem aka CADO, the AFP said in a statement late Sunday, October 27.

Jerusalem’s group of insurgents had been extorting money from different communities in
Northern Samar, said Major General Pio Diñoso III, commander of the Philippine Army’s 8th
Infantry Division and Joint Task Force Storm, which led Saturday’s attack.

No bodies were recovered from the site. However, bloodstains found on the path through
which the rebels escaped “indicate heavy casualties,” the military said. Soldiers from the
Army’s 803rd Infantry Brigade were sent to track down the guerrillas.

Among items recovered from the encampment were live ammunition for shotguns and
automatic rifles, land mines, blasting caps, improvised grenades, and communication
equipment.

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military to end the communist insurgency after failed
attempts at peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political wing of the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NPA.

The Duterte administration has instead pushed for “localized peace talks” through the
National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), created in
December 2018. The idea is to hold negotiations between local government units and local
fronts of the communist rebels.

The CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion started in 1969 and is now Asia’s longest-running insurgency.
It had about 25,000 guerrillas at its peak in the late 1980s, but its numbers have since dwindled
to about 4,000. The fighting between government forces and the rebels have have killed
thousands.

Rappler sought further comment and detail from the AFP but it has yet to respond to our
queries as of posting time.

After Saturday’s airstrikes, Diñoso credited reports from civilians about intimidation and
extortion by the guerrillas. He urged the rebels to surrender voluntarily and resume normal
lives. – with a report from Jazmin Bonifacio/Rappler.com