ZAMBOANGA CITY: Government troops killed two communist rebels in a clash in the town of Leon Postigo in Zamboanga del Norte province in the southern Philippines, army officials told The Manila Times.

Capt. Alberto Caber of the First Infantry Division said that a New People’s Army (NPA) rebel and a soldier were wounded in the hour-long fighting that broke out on Wednesday in the village of Tinuyop.

He said that the soldiers were sent to the area following reports that rebels were extorting money and harassing civilians.

Maj. Ricardo Rainier Cruz 3rd, a regional army commander, said that civilians tipped off the military about the presence of rebels in the village. “This is another success of the people—in the spirit of bayanihan—because we can always win in this fight against extortion activities and harassments by the NPA,” he said.

The rebels have been fighting for decades to topple the democratic government and install a Maoist state in the country.

Meanwhile, rebel leaders on Thursday have appealed for aid for victims of typhoon Pablo (international codename: Bopha) that left hundreds of people dead in southern Philippines.

Rubi del Mundo, a spokesman for the National Democratic Front in Southern Mindanao, also urged allied revolutionary organizations to raise funds, seek donations and contributions for more than 160,000 people affected by the typhoon.

The typhoon left a trail of destruction in the provinces of Davao and Compostela Valley where hundreds died from landslides and flash floods.

Del Mundo blamed large-scale mining activities for the deaths. “As the revolutionary forces help in the relief and rehabilitation, the people, including the families of the victims of the calamity should struggle to hold accountable those responsible for the loss of lives and property.”

“The grave losses suffered by the people highlights the need to stop environmental plunder by indiscriminate large-scale mining, expanding large-scale plantations, and logging operations that are being abetted by the US-Aquino regime’s pro-capitalist economic policies,” del Mundo said in a statement sent to The Manila Times.

The rebels spokesman said that as the typhoon’s death toll continues to increase, the government failed to provide relief operations in the towns of Boston, Cateel and Bagangga, the towns worst hit by the typhoon in Davao Oriental. She said that search and rescue operations have not extended into far-flung villages of Monkayo, New Bataan and Compostela towns.

“The inaction and incompetence by the Philippine government in the face of this tragedy is foreshadowed by the pronouncements of the reactionary environment and disaster officials who have blamed affected residents for their complacency and failing to heed the state’s warning and earlier calls for preventive evacuation.”

“The reactionary government also point to rampant small-scale mining and logging in the affected areas—areas which were considered already disaster-prone in the state’s so-called geo-hazard map. It was an old script taken out the [typhoon] Sendong [Washi] tragedy: denuded forests plus failure of the people to relocate aggravated the impact of a natural calamity. It was a ready, convenient answer by a government that has failed in putting into place sufficient preparations and responding to the needs of its people,” del Mundo said.

Del Mundo said that the failure of President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s government to immediately address the problems highlighted poor disaster-preparedness; especially in the two provinces large-scale mining and logging activities are unabated.

“Nowhere can we see the hundreds of millions of pesos of tax payers’ money out of Compostela Valley’s mining, agribusiness and Davao Oriental’s logging resources working for the victims of this calamity. Local capitalists and foreign large-scale mining salivate over the estimated 189 million metric tons of gold deposits mostly found in Mt. Diwata and nickel deposits of 490.7 million metric tons in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.”