Aerial bombardments by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in various areas around the country ] belie President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s claim of strategic defeat of the New People’s Army (NPA), the Communist Party of the Philippines said.
After Marcos boasted at his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week that no active NPA guerilla front remains in the country, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said AFP battalions are in fact conducting simultaneous counterinsurgency operations in several provinces.
Ongoing AFP operations are happening in the northwestern provinces of Luzon; in Quezon; the Bicol provinces of Camarines Norte, Albay, Sorsogon, Masbate; in Mindoro island; Negros provinces, Capiz province; Samar island provinces, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Surigao and Agusan provinces, Lanao del Norte and others, Valbuena reported.
“The (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the successive aerial bombardment launched by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Northern Samar and Quezon provinces, as the US-Marcos regime continue to carry out brutal combat operations and campaign of state terrorism throughout the country,” he said.
Two days after Marcos’ SONA, in the early hours of July 31, AFP bombed Barangay San Isidro, Las Navas, Northern Samar, traumatizing nearby Mamanwa minority communities, the CPP said.
Last August 2, the AFP also bombed Barangay Maguibuay, Tagkawayan, Quezon, unleashing terror and fear among the local peasant communities. The operation came after an encounter between a local unit of the NPA clashed with troops of the 2nd Infantry Division, in which an NPA fighter was martyred, the underground party reported.
More clashes
Within a week of Marcos’ claim, the CPP said more AFP attacks have occurred, leading to violations of international humanitarian law.
Last August 1, the CPP said soldiers of the 4th Infantry Battalion killed a local peasant farmer at Sitio Salidang, Barangay Naibuan, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, and falsely claimed the victim died during an encounter. There were no NPA units in the area, the group added.
Two successive clashes also occurred in the hinterland barangays of Gingoog City las July 26, according to AFP reports.
The next day, on July 27, AFP reported to have killed several NPA fighters in an encounter in Barangay Uson, Masbate province.
A few weeks earlier, on July 1, a local NPA unit in Bukidnon reported that seven soldiers were killed in an encounter in Barangay Busdi, Malaybalay City.
The CPP said Marcos continues to spend hundreds of billions of pesos against the NPA his government boasts to have defeated.
The AFP continues to implement brutal military campaigns in civilian communities across the country, Valbuena said.
“Entire villages are placed under military control. In those areas, soldiers impose a no man’s land policy, prohibiting people from freely moving around and working on their land. Thousands of families are going hungry because peasants are prevented by Marcos’ soldiers from tending to their fields and farm animals,” he said.
But the CPP said the NPA is in fact enjoying deeper support from civilians who are targets of AFPoperations.
“[The NPA] have been reorganized and redeployed to counter the AFP’s encirclement operations [and] continue to expand to new areas and consolidate its mass bases,” the group said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
