The New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, carried out a successful surprise attack on soldiers of the 87th Infantry Battalion on 23 June 2024, on the island of Samar in the central Philippines. During the attack, one soldier of the aforementioned battalion was eliminated.
The 87th Infantry Battalion is a military formation that has been operating on that island for a long time with the task of eliminating the revolutionary movement in that region. During its operation, the battalion became characterised by brutal methods – such as bombing and shelling of entire villages and terrorising the civilian population. One such crime happened on 3 July, when members of this battalion shot a man who happened to be on the side of the road during his movement.
After this random liquidation, the police forces helped to cover up this crime by subsequently announcing that they had taken away from the scene of the crime a different type of weaponry, which allegedly belonged to that man. Such actions are not an isolated act of a savage unit, but represent part of the general policy of the ruling regime in the Philippines, one of the main goals of which is to eliminate the very successful Philippine revolutionary movement.