Clashes Continue In the Philppines

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

Updated October 30:

There has been very heavy fighting between the NPA and AFP lately. In addition to heavy fighting in the last two weeks of September and early October that left 19 AFP troops dead and 23 wounded, there has been an upsurge in attacks in recent days.

Monday, October 13, 4 AM: A group of 60 NPA attacked an AFP 72nd Infantry Battalion base in Kingking village, Pantukan municipality in Compostela Valley Province on Mindanao. Three hours of fighting ensued that left 2 guerrillas and 1 government militiamen dead.

Pantukan municipality in Compostela Valley Province in Southern Mindanao. The NPA have been very active here for some time now.

Monday, October 13, 6 AM: An AFP patrol came upon an NPA group of undetermined size in the Sitio Pasalilo, Mabini village in the municipality of Mulanay in Quezon Province in southern Luzon. Fighting ensued and 1 guerrilla was killed. The NPA has always been strong in Quezon.

Mulanay municipality in Quezon Province on Luzon. The NPA have been pretty active here in the past few years, but they are also active in other places in Quezon, including urban slums. This area is just southeast of Manila.

Monday, October 13, 10 AM: An NPA force attacked the AFP 60th Infantry Battalion in Palma Gil village, Talaingod municipality, Davao del Norte Province in Mindanao. 2 guerrillas were killed in the fighting.

The location of Talaingod municipality in the southern part of Mindanao, long a hotbed of NPA activity.

Monday, October 13, 2:20 PM: 7 NPA guerrillas fired on government militiamen in Sitio Likupon, Sanghay village in Mati City municipality, Davao Oriental Province on Mindanao. A 12-minute firefight followed in which one militiaman was wounded by an M203 grenade launcher fired by the NPA.

Mati City municipality in Davao Oriental in Southern Mindanao. As you can see, all of this fighting has been in the same general vicinity. They are quite active in this area too, where they have apparently linked up with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in recent times. The MILF is a very well-armed Muslim insurgency in Mindanao currently in a shaky truce with the government.

Monday, October 13: An NPA force ambushed a military truck carrying provisions to troops in Palma Gil village, Talaingod municipality, Davao del Norte in Mindanao. 2 AFP soldiers were killed in the fighting.

A photo of Talaingod municipality in Davao Norte, Mindanao. Typical Philippines tropical rainforest here. The NPA has been very active here for a very long time. They were extremely active here 17 years ago and prior and had tons of support.

That's quite a bit of fighting for this usually sleepy war. A Filipina I know from Sampaloc, Manila, told me that the NPA "is recruiting everywhere now, especially at the universities." She also said that most Filipinos who live in big cities are apathetic about the conflict since it does not effect them. They dislike both the NPA and the government but are not very passionate about either party. They are almost neutral.

This sort of pragmatic fence-sitting is very common in civil conflicts. If guerrillas can get to the point where they have the support of 30% of the population, they are doing well. In the American Revolution, 1/3 supported the colonists, 1/3 supported the British and 1/3 were neutral. And the colonists won.

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