NPA Checkpoints on Mindanao's National Hiways is not new, nor is it shocking in the least. Howevet, since 1993 the NPA has never attempted to implement a checkpoint during daylight hours. On Wednesday, January 18th, 2012, at 130AM, the NPA's Front 53 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, or, SMRC in shorthand, deployed 30 guerillas into the Bukidnon Provincial municipality of Kitaotao's Sitio Malo -os, in Barangay Sinuda, just up the road from the Sumifru-owned banana facility, and lay in wait for trucks belonging to Sumifru sub-contractors.
Bantuanon had refused a demand from SMRC for "Revolutionary Taxes, " quarterly payoffs that allow one to operate unmolested in NPA-controlled areas. The NPA's general operating procedure is to wait six months, and then, if mo money or goods are forthcoming, exact retribution with a very public act of violence. Usually this is exacted by burning Millions in Pesos worth of goods and property.
At 3AM that morning, two trucks left Sumifru fully loaded with bananas en route to Davao City and its busy port on Mindanao's Southern Coast. The first truck, a straight truck owned by JY Compay of GenSan (General Santos City), and operated by its owner, Jun Yee, drove a kilometer away from Sumifru and was then compelled to slow down at what appeared to be an Armed Forces of the Philippines,or AFP, Checkpoint. Like almost all AFP Checkpoints this one, manned by a full platoon (30 soldiers) in AFP fatigues, even had the requisite metal sign upon which was stated that vehicles were undergoing serving in the 23IB (Infantry Battalion). As Yee scanned the checkpoint, a tractor trailer owned by Bantuanon Trucking of the Davao del Sur Provincial municipality of Santa Cruz, rolled to a stop behind him.
As both trucks idled they were stunned when the kindly "soldiers" manning the checkpoint suddenly began screaming at both drivers, with the barrels of their assault rifles drawn down on them. Brusquely yanked from their cabs, both Yee and the other driver, Romeo Sajulga, watched in shocked silence as Molotov Cocktails were used to set both trucks ablaze. Yee's straight truck was totally burned but only Bantuanon Trucking's trailer was burned since the anPA had made a concerted effort to unhitch the trailer.
Responding to reports of the NPA's tactical operation, the AFP's 8IB deployed a platoon under Second Lieutenant Gaspar from a forward base in the municipality of Maramag in a three truck convoy carrying a platoon of soldiers. As the convoy entered the municipality of Quezon's Batangay Palacapao it entered a dead zone with no communication ability. Driving along Overlook Ridge the convoy sped into Sitio Zigzag and found themselves driving straight into an NPA ambush. After the initial IED, or Improvised Explosive Device detonated, critically wounding four AFP soldiers (AFP brass have merely reported four minor wounds, and true to form, the NPA is claiming that the four wounded were actually killed, and twelve more soldiers were wounded):
1) Corporal Ongcoy
2) Private First Class (PFC) Senes
3) PFC.Pactol
4) Private Palahan
a fierce firefight broke out...As the platoon scrambled for cover the NPA Blocking Force that had engaged them was already moving down hill into the valley below. In a series of running engagements both sides eventually found themselves in Barangay Puntian where more pitched engagements took place. Calling in air cover from Davao City, a pair of MG520 helicipters responded, albeit with no effect whatsoever.
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