Terror victim Acting Philippine National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa checks the condition of a policeman wounded in an ambush near Borongan City in Samar. E. RECUERDO

The Department of National Defense (DND) will not relent on its combat operations against the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) even during the peace talks.

Thus, vowed Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as he junked the ambush staged by NPA rebels in Borongan City on Friday as an attempt to project strength.

“That usually is what they do on the eve of peace talks to heighten their attacks to project their so-called strength,” Lorenzana said.

The attack, staged immediately after President Rodrigo Duterte expressed openness to resume peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA, resulted in the killing of a police officer and two civilians while several others were injured.

Investigation showed that the NPA rebels initially detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) then fired upon the two tricycles and a van containing the victims.

“The CPP-NPA declared war against the government and has been waging it for 50 years bringing untold misery to our people. This is war,” Lorenzana said.

“We win some and we lose some. Our security forces should accept these losses as the price we pay to preserve our freedom and democracy,” he added.

Lorenzana said that the bombing had no bearing on the possible revival of the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the CPP-NPA.

The defense chief, however, stressed that government security forces will not stop operations against communist rebels even as he maintained that the government will continue to accept the rebels who would renounce violence.

“Our efforts to bring them down to join the society for those who are willing will continue. So is our combat operations against their armed components who will continue to wage war. No letup even during peace talks,” vowed Lorenzana.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Eastern Visayas has formed a quick reaction team that will investigate the Friday ambush in Barangay Libuton.

CHR-Region 8 Director Desiree Pontejos said the team will be dispatched today to start the investigation so that justice will be served to the victims in the earliest possible time.

Pontejos said the order to form an investigation team came from CHR Central Office amid reports that among the casualties included children, and that human rights were violated in the process.

Earlier, CHR spokesman Jacqueline Ann de Guia issued a statement strongly condemning the attack.

“We denounce such act of deliberate and arbitrary killing by the armed opposition group as the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate force in armed conflicts is a direct violation of the international humanitarian law,” De Guia said in the statement.