Military launches offensive vs. NPAs rebels in Bukidnon

QUEZON, Bukidnon -- The military is now pursuing a group of communist rebels believed responsible for the burning of seven trucks and in the ambuscade of responding law enforcers along the Davao-Bukidnon highway Sunday.Capt. Norman M. Tagros, spokesperson of the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion in Bukidnon, said that five trucks were bound for Davao while the two others were on their way to Bukidnon when waylaid by the armed group.In a report reaching here Monday, Tagros said that the armed men flagged down the trucks and torched the vehicles, most of them loaded with bananas, milk products, and beer products in the vicinity of Barangay Palacapao, Quezon, Bukidnon about past 5 a.m. Sunday.He said that another armed group simultaneously harassed the military detachment in the neighboring village of Kipolot in Palacapao, which resulted in a brief firefight. There was no report of casualty.According to Tagros, seven responding police personnel were also wounded in a landmine blast while the composite troops from the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion encountered the armed groups in the nearby village of Puntian in the municipal town of Quezon during the same day.Lt. Col. Lennon G. Babilona, commanding officer of the Army’s 8th IB, said that the communist rebels would be observing the 46th founding anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29, 2015. It is unfortunate ‘though that after 46 years of fighting for an ideology, the NPA has turned into killing machine that specializes in the crime of extortion that victimizes the innocent civilians, Babilonia said in a statement. (PNA)LAP/CD/EDS