A member of the New People’s Army (NPA) was killed and another wounded in the village of Osmeña in Las Navas, northern Samar by soldiers of the 19th Infantry Battalion of the government army. The Maoists are believed to be members of the guerrilla unit of the Emporium sub-regional committee of the NPA regional committee for Eastern Visayas. The slain Maoist was identified as State Adel Cabides, alias Hipolito, and the wounded NPA fighter as Jessie Robinacio, alias Tadok.
March 29 marked the 55th anniversary of the New Popular Army (NPA) in the Philippines. This Maoist guerrilla group is thus the oldest guerrilla group in the world. On this occasion, the Central Committee of the Communist Party, which heads the NPA, ordered its units to launch offensive operations of various types. These were decided as part of a rectification campaign aimed in particular at strengthening the resistance and correcting the problems of passivity as well as military conservatism. They called this offensive “a war of active defense to frustrate the brutal campaign of encirclement and suppression being waged by the US-Marcos regime, and shatter the reign of terror of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the countryside.” (more info).
Source: Secours Rouge