March 20, 2016•Update: March 28, 2016
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines
Communist rebels launched two bomb attacks against the Philippines military over the weekend wounding five soldiers and two civilians.
An army truck on its way to the market to buy food was rocked by a roadside explosion Sunday morning, wounding four soldiers and two civilians, a report from the state-run Philippines News Agency (PNA) said.
Army regional spokesperson Lt. Col. Angelo De Guzman told PNA that the improvised explosive device set up by New People's Army insurgents exploded along the road in the northern Philippines' Bicol region around 8.30 a.m. (0030GMT).
De Guzman described the two wounded civilians were "military dependents".
On Saturday, a soldier from the Army's 31st Infantry Battalion was hit by IED fragments in a five-minute encounter with 10 NPA rebels that erupted during combat operations in the villages of Union and Sangat, Gubat in Sorsogon province around 10.15 a.m.
The army sent reinforcements units to run after the rebels involved in the two incidents
De Guzman quoted higher army command as condemning the NPA's widespread use of IEDs as "the fragments from its blast are propelled over a wide area posing an unpredictable threat and great risks to innocent civilians. "
Elsewhere, a communist rebel leader and 12 of his men surrendered Saturday to the Army in the southern Philippines.
Robert Hiyan, head of the NPA's "Milisya ng Bayan" (Militia of the People) initially surrendered with four of his men to the Army at 10.00 a.m. in Napnapan village, army public affairs office chief Capt. Rhyan Batchar told PNA.
They were followed later by Hiyan's eight other companions in the village of Kingking, Pantukan town.
"They are tired of incessant fighting," Batchar said
Hiyan's men were not identified for security reasons.
The group turned over to the military an M-60 machine gun, two M-16A1 automatic rifles, two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, one small improvised explosive device with detonating device, a blasting cap and battery, one commercial high-frequency radio with charger and voluminous "subversive" documents.
Since March 1969, the NPA -- the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines -- has been waging one of Asia’s longest running insurgencies, mainly in the poorest regions of the Philippines.
According to government figures, the conflict has claimed around 40,000 lives, including more than 3,000 in the last eight years alone.
Philippine authorities have tagged the rebels as notorious extortionists and blamed them for harassing banana, pineapple and rubber plantations, as well as poultry farms and mining outfits.
