Delayed field reports from the Procopio Tauro Front of the New People’s Army (PTF-NPA) confirmed that Red Guerrillas torched the Company Command Post of the Bravo Company, 41st Infantry Batallion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), in Mataragan, Malibcong, Abra province, in northern Philippines. The incident took place on the night of 8 February 2014. Fifteen camp structures were burned to the ground.

Troops of the Bravo Company are now stationed in Poblacion Malibcong and in Sitio Aguibo, along the Abra-Kalinga road. The NPA guerrillas torched the said military camp after the people of Mataragan protested against the incessant human rights violations of the Bravo Company, 41st Infantry Battalion.

Another attack was launched by the NPA Procopio Tauro Front against troops of the Alpha Company, 41st Infantry Battalion at 9:15pm on 16 February 2014. The NPA unit monitored the movements of the AFP soldiers and launched a hasty ambush. Two soldiers were killed, while five others were wounded. The first volley of fire was unleashed by the NPA guerillas just two meters away from the walking soldiers, instantly killing the first two  soldiers. The ambush was undertaken at sitio Lenneng, Baay-Licuan, Abra.

These attacks were launched by the NPA not only to foil the 2nd phase of Oplan Bayanihan (counter-insurgency program of the US-Aquino regime) in Abra, but also as punitive actions against the much-hated 41st Infantry Battalion that has gained notoriety among the masses of the Abra countryside due to various acts of human rights violations, oppression and exploitation of women, disrespect and disregard of the indigenous peoples’ culture, and servility to large-scale mining interests, among others.

The US-Aquino Regime’s desperate efforts to fast track Oplan Bayanihan are being frustrated by the people and the revolutionary movement. Capt. Reggie Go, the 41st Infantry Battalion’s Public Information Officer, hallucinates when he refers to the NPA Red Fighters as “remnants”, fooling only himself and his masters that the revolutionary movement in Abra is already a spent force. Captain Go habitually announces that NPA presence “is reported by the people because of extortion”. But let the actions and words of the ordinary masses in areas incessantly plagued by the 41st Infantry Battalion’s presence speak the truth.