Philippine troops kill ten communist rebels in a clash – the latest blow to the decades-long insurgency

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine troops killed at least 10 suspected communist guerrillas in clashes in a remote region of the northern Philippines, the latest blow to a decades-old insurgency that has been significantly weakened and has only about a thousand guerrillas left, military and security officials said Friday.

Last week, army troops caught up with about 20 New People’s Army guerrillas retreating from an earlier clash with government troops, sparking a firefight on Wednesday that left 10 rebels, including three commanders, killed near a village in Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija province, the army said.

Thirteen rifles and a pistol were recovered from the fighting area near a key dam, it said. Troops were pursuing about 10 other guerrillas who had retreated from the remote area, regional army spokesman Major Jimson Masangkay said by telephone.

Brigadier General Norwin Joseph Pasamonte, commander of an infantry brigade, praised the troops but expressed regret for the rebels killed. “The government has not failed to call on them to surrender and return to normal life,” Pasamonte said in a statement, adding that the dead should help persuade the remaining guerrillas to surrender.

Nueva Ecija, a rice-growing region in the north, was a hotbed of communist insurgency decades ago, but fewer than 50 Maoist guerrillas remain in the area, Masangkay says.

Last November, the government and communist rebels agreed to resume talks to end the armed insurgency – one of the longest in Asia – after meeting in the Norwegian capital Oslo to discuss the main obstacles to temporary peace talks, Norwegian mediators said.

However, actual peace talks were not resumed under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Philippine authorities say about 1,000 communist fighters remain in the Philippines after years of defeats, surrenders and factional fighting. Peace talks brokered by Norway collapsed under former President Rodrigo Duterte after both sides accused each other of continuing to carry out deadly attacks despite the negotiations.