ZAMBOANGA CITY: Communist rebels on Thursday attacked government troops sent to deliver relief goods to typhoon victims in Davao del Norte province in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said that New People’s Army (NPA) opened fire on members of the 60th Infantry Battalion in the village of Santo Nino in Talaingod town. “Members of 60th Infantry Battalion were fired upon at the outreach station in the village,” Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, a spokesman of the 10th Infantry Division, said.

Paniza did not say if there were casualties in the ambush, but claimed that the attack occurred a day during a self-imposed ceasefire by the rebels. He said that the rebels declared a holiday truce from December 5 to January 3, but he branded the NPA ceasefire as propaganda.

“We all know that their promise of truce is nothing but a sugar-coated lie to make them look like Good Samaritans. It is a mere façade to cloak their real identity as criminals. The rebel group is exploiting the distraught situation of the victims as propaganda and nothing else.”

“This incident only manifests their insincerity in helping the people especially those badly affected residents. If we are on relief mission mode, then they are on business as usual mode without considering that the assault hampered our relief efforts,” Paniza said.

He said that just recently, rebels also abducted two children in San Isidro town after failing to kill their father who is a government soldier.