By Prensa Latina
Manila : A confrontation between government forces and alleged members of the New Philippines People’s Army (NEP) killed five soldiers and wounded six on Wednesday in the south of the archipelago, an army source reported.
The army spokesman Colonel Benito de Leon told media that the fighting occurred in the coastal town of Cateel in the eastern province of Davao, 55 miles south of Manila.
Previously, the chief of the Armed Forces general Hermogenes Esperon noted that scale and intensity of military operations would be increased to neutralize NEP.
In that way, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s commitment of finishing the rebels struggle before the end of her term of office by 2010 would have been accomplished.
Philippines rebels rejected the government demands of resuming the process to achieve a peace agreement that would have ended forty years of war in the rural areas, the poorest of the country.
The NEP has over 7,000 soldiers and since 1969 began its fight aimed at improving conditions of Philippine people living in rural areas.