New People’s Army units in the provinces of North Cotabato and Compostela Valley actively countered combat operations of Armed Forces of the Philippines troops this week, inflicting casualties in three separate tactical offensives. Shortly after, the fascist enemy deployed heavy bombardment that forced communities to evacuate and spun fake news in an attempt to smokescreen its defeat.

Red fighters under the Mt. Apo Sub-Regional Command launched snipe operation against a platoon of operating 19th IB troops in Sitio Upper Tiwayan, Brgy. Badiangon in Arakan, North Cotabato, at around 9am on April 23. Later, at around 10am, another unit of Red fighters gave battle to fully-armed reinforcement troops at a crossing road in Sitio Anoling. After these two offensives, Red fighters safely withdrew from their positions, while 2 enemy officials were killed in action.

The enemy troops, however, went haywire following these NPA military actions. During the second offensive and minutes after Red fighters had already disengaged, the 19th IB’s reinforcement troops fired indiscriminately, effectively hitting their escort, CAFGU Jonel Bayaan, who was onboard a motorcycle with another CAFGU member. Bayaan, a resident of Brgy. Katindo, is also an active member of the paramilitary group Bagani in the area. An hour later, the 19th IB launched artillery fire 14 times and fired from MG-50 helicopter gunships in the midst of farms and communities. The AFP’s indiscriminate bombardment forced hundreds of civilians in Brgy. Badiangon and other adjacent barangays to flee their homes.

Meanwhile, on April 24, at around 9:45am, the 71st IB—notorious child-killer and rights abusers in Compostela Valley—were hit in a demolition operation by Red fighters under the ComVal-Davao Gulf Sub-Regional Command in Brgy. Cabuyuan, Mabini town. Three enemy troopers were killed while several others were wounded. The 71st IB promptly launched artillery fire and aerial bombing several times after the NPA’s military action.

Spinning fake news, such as misrepresenting an active CAFGU and paramilitary member as a civilian caught in NPA crossfire or concealing the fact that it is their indiscriminate bombings that instigate forced evacuations, has become a standard-operating procedure in the US-Duterte regime’s martial law in Mindanao.

To be sure, this year’s heightened militarization of rural areas in North Cotabato and Compostela Valley and in other parts of Southern Mindanao is not merely to serve Duterte’s manic but ultimately futile attempt to defeat the NPA and realize his pernicious plans to sell-out Mindanao to his imperialist masters. It also serves to browbeat the masses and ensure his ilk and minions are elected in positions in the reactionary government necessary to maintain his tyranny.