Key Reds slain via tough offensive
The Philippine Army denied the claims of the NDF’s mouthpiece and insisted that Acosta and Jimenes were shot dead in a ‘legitimate’ firefight on 3 November in Sitio Makilo, Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City.
Daily TribuneThe Philippine Army denied the claims of the NDF’s mouthpiece and insisted that Acosta and Jimenes were shot dead in a ‘legitimate’ firefight on 3 November in Sitio Makilo, Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines registered a string of successes with the capture of top guerilla cadres in communist rebel-infested Negros Occidental and Eastern Samar.
AFP debunked claims of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its allied organizations that Ericson Acosta who was killed in an encounter recently was a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and not an armed combatant.
In a statement, AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar bared that Acosta was one of the high-ranking officials of the communist armed wing, New People's Army.
"Let us not be fooled to think and say that being NDF Consultant, as what they portray him, makes him naive and harmless," Aguilar said.
NDF-Negros spokesperson Ka Bayani Obrero earlier said Acosta and his companion, Joseph Jimenez, were captured alive by the military before being declared as "casualties of a fake encounter."
The Philippine Army denied the claims of the NDF's mouthpiece and insisted that Acosta and Jimenes were shot dead in a "legitimate" firefight on 3 November in Sitio Makilo, Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Aguilar bared Acosta was a Deputy Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPP operating in the hinterlands of Negros Island —where NPA rebels were rampantly conducting extortion and perpetrating violent attacks.
Eastern Visayas leader falls
The Armed Forces of the Philippines confirms the identity of one of the casualties in an encounter in the hinterlands of Barangay Imelda, Las Navas, Northern Samar last 23 November as that of Helenita Pardales, one of the top officials of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Eastern Visayas.
AFP Joint Task Force spokesperson Capt. Ryan Layug told Daily Tribune that Pardales was identified by former members of the CPP and New People's Army who have surrendered to the government.
Layug said Pardales, who also goes by the name of alias Celine or Elay, is the secretary of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee and is responsible for setting the direction of the NPA in terms of recruitment for combatants and cadres in the "white area" such as colleges and universities.
"She's the top political officer of the CPP-NPA in Eastern Visayas," Layug said in an interview on Saturday, 3 December.
Layug added that Pardales, who is in her 60s, is among the core members of the CPP-NPA in the region that were recruited during the martial law period in the 70s up to the early 80s. She takes directives such as the conduct of tactical offensives from the CPP's Central Committee and enforces the same in Eastern Visayas.
Pardales and five cadres of the CPP-NPA were killed in the one-hour clash last 23 November by joint troops from the Philippine Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Army troopers were then running after the NPA guerillas that attacked Brgy Dorillo in Jipapad, Eastern Samar last 7 October when the encounter happened.
Also killed in the said encounter were cadres who were only identified through their aliases as Biboy or Orlan, Mamoy, Caridad, Joshua, and Boy. The six were given proper burial last 26 November when no members of their respective families came to claim their bodies.
Layug said Alias Biboy or Orlan heads the Regional Operations Command of the CPP-NPA, where he plans and supervises to ensure the successful implementation of a tactical offensive of all NPA units in the Region.
