AN unprecedented influx of fighters from the communist New People’s Army is making the Compostela Valley look like a large “red zone,” the military said Thursday. A military intelligence said the increase in communist fighters in the region could be traced to the booming mining and agro-industrial activities there. “The NPA benefits from mining through extortion, which they call revolutionary taxes,” the source said. “NPA activities would not survive without these taxes.” The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the displacement of indigenous people in large parts of Eastern Mindanao as a result of mining and palm oil operations, and militarization gave the communist rebels a pool of new recruits.

The Communist Party of the Philippines and National Democratic Front have placed the number of NPA fighters at 10,000, which is in contrast to claim by the Armed Forces of the Philippines that it has already reduced them to 3,000 to 4,000. The number of NPA fighters peaked at 24,000 in the 1980s. The growth in the number of rebel fighters has also been evident in eastern Mindanao, as more indigenous people are displaced by large-scale mining, agro-industrial operations and logging. The military says two of every three rebel recruits in the region come from displaced tribal communities. Thousands of lumad are still staying in evacuation centers such as the one in Tandag City as the military and NPA have turned their communities into war zones. The military has also been accused of organizing, training and arming para-military groups such as the Magahat-Bagani and Alamara, which have been blamed for the deaths of several tribal leaders and activists in Surigao and Agusan provinces, Bukidnon, and Davao. On Wednesday, a young officer and two other soldiers were killed while two others were wounded in at least two separate encounters between government troops and rebels in two different locations in Pantukan town.“These incidents confirmed the assessment of the 10ID [10th Infantry Division] that large formations of NPAs are in Pantukan,” Capt. Rhyan Batchar, the division public affairs chief, said. Another private was killed in an encounter in Sitio Biasong, Barangay Napnapan when around 10 rebels encountered his platoon. After the encounter, the rebels burned two makeshift houses before vanishing from the encounter site. Batchar said the large formations of NPA rebels in the province were operating under the Pulang Bagani Command 3 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee. Batchar lambasted the local chapter of the human rights group Karapatan in the region for accusing the military of human rights violations against the people during the course of their operations against the rebels. “These deceptive propagandas were intended to distract [the battalion] and divert its focus away from its efforts to help bring peace and development in the said municipality,” he said. Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya said Thursday that at least two communist guerillas were killed and four high-powered firearms were seized after a fierce encounter Wednesday in Bato Camarines Sur. He said the encounter occurred at 12:50 p.m. at the temporary encampment of the NPA in Barangay San Isidro. “The firefight lasted for 20 minutes with two slain rebels and no casualty on our side,” Visaya said. “Our troops in the area had been monitoring the movement of the rebels for several days and when it was time to strike they did it with precision. Our troopers had first allowed the rebels to settle down in a place where they constructed their temporary encampment and then the surprise strike,” Visaya said. He commended the officers and men of the battalion led by Colonel Perfecto Peñaredondo.