BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The tempo of relentless combat operations is increasing in Negros Occidental province as Army rifle units report battlefield successes in the drive to flush and crush remnants of a gasping Communist insurgency in Negros island.
The end of July 2024 ushered in successive losses for the Communist rebels who have gone leaderless since the death of their two ranking cadres last year as the Army logged three rebel kills in only two days.
Rifle units of the 15th Infantry Battallion, led by a new commander, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Bagaipo, reported three dead rebels were left in battle after the same number of clashes in the uplands of Cauayan town and Sipalay City that once formed part of a stronghold that included Camindangan village.
Lieutenant Colonel J-Jay Javines, spokesman of the Army Third Infantry Division, told DNX the latest fatalities found in two separate clashes in Sipalay City were part of a rebel semi-legal team armed only with pistols and grenades that had been stepping up a recruitment campaign for fighters and supporters as they continue to face dwindling mass support.
Javines said the 1 August 2024 gunbattles were in two sitios (sub villages) of Camindangan where a string of skirmishes took place, one in the morning and another in the early afternoon.
Soldiers found the body of a young fighter, Reggie Fundador alias Camille/Tata after the near noontime clash in Bactolon while another one, identified as alias Xian, was found around 2pm in the sitio of Cambogi-ot.
A pistol and a grenade were found on each body.
The Sipalay clash came after the firefight initiated also by the 15th IB led to a rebel kill in Cauayan’s upland village of Basak on 29 July 2024.
The southern Negros Occidental clashes came on the heels of combat operations last week that led to the seizure of an arms cache and four firearms in Pinowayan village in Don Salvador Benedicto.
The 79th led by Colonel Arnel Calaoagan had also reported last June the discovery of an arms cache and abandoned bivouac in upland Cadiz City.
