The New People’s Army (NPA) in Quezon Province announced its ambush of government soldiers in Tagkawayan town last Friday, adding its military action belies government claims the area is now free of communist influence.
Apolonio Mendoza Command (AMC)-NPA Quezon spokesperson Cleo del Mundo said the firefight started at about 7 o’clock in the morning of September 1 and lasted for more than an hour.
“Five were killed among the military while four others were wounded. The enemies fled the fighting, enabling the Red Army to safely withdraw,” del Mundo said.
“The Red Fighters were able to take five high-caliber firearms,” he added.
The soldiers and their auxiliary forces were conducting patrol operarions when ambushed by the NPA.
Meanwhile, 85th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (85th IBPA) commander Lt. Col. Joel Jonson said the five fatalities were elements of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU).
The names of the fatalities were not announced by the military.
Jonson did not mention if the wounded were soldiers or paramilitary.
He added that the incident is a big challenge to their declaration of “Stable Internal Peace and Security” in Tagkawayan and in the entire Quezon Province.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and Quezon governor Angelina Tan declared last June 15 that the province is free of NPA influence.
Del Mundo however said their successful ambush is proof that the NPA remains in Quezon due to the popular support of the people.
The spokesperson added that the ambush is their punishment of the 85th IBPA’s human rights violations against civilians who suffered tortures, harassments and killings.
Del Mundo said the NPA in the province has documented around 20,000 cases of rights violations under the Rodrigo Duterte government.
“We will not be defeated…because our revolution is just,” del Mundo added.
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chief information officer Marco Valbuena lauded the AMC for its victory.
“The successful ambush in Quezon, following the recent tactical offensives in Negros and Masbate, clearly demonstrates the robust armed resistance being waged by the NPA against all-out state terrorism under the US-Marcos fascist regime,” Valbuena said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Global groups condemn judicial harassments of rights defenders
The government’s National Security Program (NSP) has the problem of poverty and underdevelopment backwards, seeing it as product of armed conflict and not the other way around, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said.
BAYAN in a statement said there is nothing new in Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s NSP for 2023 to 2028, adding the program does not frame the civil war in the country as a consequence of underdevelopment, exploitation and foreign domination in the country’s economy and politics.
“It looks at ‘peace’ only as a necessary condition for development but does not see peace as the result of social justice and genuine development,” BAYAN president Renato Reyes said.
Marcos Jr. last week issued Executive Order 37 (EO37) adopting NSP 2023-2028 that critics said is a continuation of security programs implemented under the Benigno Aquino and Rodrigo Duterte governments.
Reyes said the new NSP also simply reaffirmed the role of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in counter-insurgency and praised its supposed achievements despite its bloody human rights record.
“This alone is telling as it signals the continuation of the government’s campaign of repression against the people and against all forms of dissent,” Reyes said.
The new NSP likewise pays lip-service to human rights and international humanitarian law, Reyes added, almost to a laughable extent because of the continuing human rights violations in the Philippines.
“Indeed, how can the Philippine government claim with a straight face that it deals with security threats ‘in strict observance of civil and human rights, and the international humanitarian law (IHL)’ when activists and revolutionaries are being abducted or executed and civilians are forced to ‘surrender’ as armed rebels?” Reyes asked.
The activist leader said the Marcos Jr. government appears oblivious to the local and international condemnation of red-tagging, doubling down on the policy by saying that “the Government shall strengthen its action against the legal fronts of the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) to stop recruitment, cut financial sources, and debunk their propaganda.”
Dozens of European, North American and African countries have repeatedly called out the Philippine government on its dangerous practice of red-tagging, a policy alternately denied and confirmed by government officials in local and international forums such as the United Nations.
The NSP does not seek to achieve a just peace, a condition that is the result of genuine pro-people development and the full realization of human rights and democracy, BAYAN said.
Judicial harassment against rights defenders
Meanwhile, 42 global organizations expressed solidarity with 10 human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Philippines and condemned the filing of petitions to overturn their acquittal from charges of perjury last January 9.
In a statement, the organizations said both the original charge and the additional petition filed by former Armed Forces of the Philippines general and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is a reprisal for the defenders’ actions seeking legal protection from state harassment.
Acquitted were Karapatan National Council members Elisa Tita Lubi, Cristina Palabay, and Roneo Clamor; Gabriela leaders Joan May Salvador and Gertrudes Libang; as well as fellow rights defenders Gabriela Krista Dalena, Dr. Edita Burgos, Jose Mari Callueng, Fr. Wilfredo Ruazol, and Rural Missionaries of the Philippines coordinator Sr. Elenita Belardo.
The global organizations said the “weaponization” of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to suppress and persecute HRDs is alarming.
Karapatan has earlier reported that at least 13 defenders in the Southern Tagalog region currently face trumped-up criminal complaints, citing alleged violations under the ATA.
“Using the ATA to criminalise human rights workers adds to the long list of harassment orchestrated by the Philippine Government to delegitimise the work of HRDs and human rights organizations,” the global organizations said.
“Such aggressive crackdown on defenders not only violates their fundamental freedoms but also hinders their crucial work in protecting and promoting human rights for all,” they added.
Aside from judicial harassment, the organizations added that enduring red-tagging and other forms of harassment violate the Philippine government’s commitment in the Universal Periodic Review in 2022 to protect HRDs in the country. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/hands-off.jpg475750Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-08-23 10:50:512023-08-23 10:55:44BAYAN: More red-tagging, rights violations under BBM’s security program
The Communist Party of the Philippines vowed to attain justice for Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria and their companions it said were massacred in Catbalogan, Samar a year ago today, August 21.
In a statement, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena reiterated their belief that the couple and their eight comrades were arrested by troops belonging to the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine army and subsequently tortured and executed.
“The revolutionary forces reiterate their vow to attain justice for the Tiamzons and all other victims of state terrorism,” Valbuena said.
The CPP officer added the murder of Tiamzon, Austria as well as their companions he identified as Ka (comrade) Divino, Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe and Ka Butig “are dastardly fascist-terrorist crimes of the Marcos regime, perpetrated under the direction of their US military advisers.”
In a report eight months after the incident last April, the CPP’s Political Bureau said the Tiamzons were traveling on two separate vans along the national highway eastwards towards Catbalogan City.
The group, later dubbed as the Catbalogan 10, was flagged down between 12:00 noon and 1:00 in the afternoon, after which all communications with the group were lost, the CPP said.
The group was unarmed, it added.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) meanwhile said the victims were killed in a legitimate encounter off the coast of Catbalogan when their motorized boat exploded following a firefight with their soldiers.
“We have long suspected the deaths of CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma during an armed encounter with government troops on Aug. 22, 2022 in the seas off Catbalogan City, Samar, but we did not have the evidence to confirm it,” then AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said.
The AFP added that only body parts were what remained of those killed, preventing their immediate identification.
The military had long suspected that Tiamzon was CPP chairman while Austria was secretary general
Valbuena said that the couple long served as among key CPP leaders who selflessly dedicated their lives to the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation and the socialist aspirations of the working class.
Tiamzon and Wilma were last seen publicly as consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in peace negotiations with the Rodrigo Duterte administration of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in 2016 and 2017.
“[T]he martyrdom of the Tiamzons will forever be remembered and inspire the younger generation of workers, peasants and all democratic classes to carry forward the Filipino people’s national democratic struggle,” Valbuena said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/20-1.jpg5481000Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-08-21 15:12:282023-08-21 15:12:29CPP vows justice for Tiamzons and companions a year after deaths
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) dismissed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s amnesty proclamation announcement in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) before Congress yesterday, July 24.
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said their group and the New People’s Army (NPA) firmly reject Marcos Jr.’s “treacherous offer of amnesty and surrender” as an additional instrument of deception and oppression.
The CPP added communists and revolutionary fighters remain true to the aspirations of the Filipino people and that their cause is genuine freedom and social justice is far greater than any offer of amnesty.
“Revolutionaries are motivated not by the selfish desire for some personal gain, rather by the selfless devotion to serve and struggle with the people,” Valbuena said.
In his SONA, Marcos claimed the government’s Barangay Development Program (BDP) and the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) are solving the root causes of armed conflict in the country.
“Through community development and livelihood programs, the barangay development and enhanced comprehensive local integration program have been effective in addressing the root cause of conflict in the countryside,” Marcos said.
“To complete this reintegration process, I will issue a proclamation granting amnesty to rebel returnees and I ask Congress to support me in this endeavor,” he added.
The CPP however said that Marcos is being grossly insolent and is seriously mistaken to think that NPA fighters will line up to gain a few individual concessions in exchange for giving up the cause they have committed themselves to.
“Marcos’ offer of amnesty for those who will surrender is duplicitous, considering that close to 800 political prisoners remain in jails, and every day, people are being arrested and persecuted for their political beliefs and social commitment,” Valbuena said.
Persistent landlessness
Valbuena also scored Marcos’ claim that government is effectively addressing the root cause of conflict in the countryside.
”[These] are utterly devoid of the truth and completely out of touch with reality,” Valbuena said.
The CPP officer said government’s community development and livelihood programs, farm to market roads as well as its newly-signed New Agrarian Emancipation Act only perpetuate the basic problems of social injustice and poverty that are rooted in the problem of landlessness.
“The Marcos regime ignores the outstanding clamor of the peasant majority population for genuine land reform, and the Filipino people’s demand for national industrialization,” Valbuena said.
He added widespread economic dislocation and agricultural crisis in the countryside continue in the countryside under the Marcos Jr. government.
Valbuena pointed out that hundreds of thousands of farmers and minority people are being dispossessed of land and their means of production.
“Agricultural and ancestral land are being grabbed by the expansion of plantations and mining operations, real estate, construction of dams, ecotourism, ‘green’ energy and other foreign-funded infrastructure projects. Millions of peasant tillers and fisher folk are being forced to bankruptcy by wanton importation of rice, sugar, vegetables and other agricultural and aquatic produce,” he said.
Since he took office in June 30, 2022, Marcos Jr. had been concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture which struggled with smuggling and agricultural product price manipulation controversies.
Police violently arrest agrarian reform beneficiaries and supporters in Concepcion, Tarlac. (Altermidya photo)
Worse, Valbuena said, peasant masses are daily subjected to worsening forms of oppression and exploitation, particularly those who voice grievances and choose to assert their demands who are subjected to political repression by government agents.
“Military and police abuses, summary killings, torture, unlawful detention, enforced disappearances and other violations of human rights are most rampant in the countryside, and are being carried out with utmost impunity,” Valbuena complained.
‘Remember Sakay’
The CPP said amnesty offers to those who take up arms had only been sugar-coated bullets against revolutionary forces.
The group recalled United States of America’s colonial government in the Philippines offered amnesty to Filipino freedom fighter Macario Sakay and his government in 1905 only to publicly execute him in 1907.
In 1946, some leaders of the Hukbalahap were baited by the amnesty program of President Elpidio Quirino only to be murdered a few months later.
The Hukbalahap (Hukbong Mapaglaya Laban sa Hapon) was a Communist guerilla army that fought the invading Japanese Imperial Army during World War II and is regarded as forerunner to the NPA.
The CPP also cited Presidents Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo’s amnesty programs but under whose respective governments several killings and massacres of farmers would occur.
Valbuena said Marcos Jr.’s government is similar to his predecessors in its drive for ‘localized peace talks’ and ‘surrender drive’ in which rural communities are subjected to military occupation, psychological warfare and intelligence and combat operations.
Many of these communities are later declared as “insurgency free,” characterized by well-publicized “mass surrender” ceremonies.
Valbuena also cited the mass filing of charges against mass organizations and activists under the Anti-Terrorism Law.
The government’s draconian measures against all forms of resistance make their struggle just and necessary, Valbuena said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/cpp.jpg5291024Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-07-25 20:49:132023-07-25 20:49:15Reds dismiss Marcos offer of amnesty as ‘treachery’
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said it continues to pursue agrarian reform to free poor farmers from exploitation and oppression even if the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration refuses to resume peace negotiations.
In an interview with Liberation International, the group’s global version of its magazine, NDFP Negotiating Panel interim chairperson Julie de Lima said peasant movements in certain areas of the Philippines launch campaigns from land rent reduction to confiscation of land for free distribution to landless tenants.
De Lima said these struggles are the main content of their national democratic revolution, which is also set in their social and economic reforms proposal in the suspended formal negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
In the interview, De Lima also dismissed GRP Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez Jr.’s claim the proposed Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) is obsolete.
Earlier, Galvez Jr. was quoted by a government website saying “CASER is based on an obsolete framework and is no longer relevant since it is largely based on the pre-industrialization and pre-globalization era.”
“Galvez does not know what he is talking about and is irrelevant to the issue of what is the character of the Philippine economy. We know for a fact that the Philippines is nonindustrial,” de Lima said.
De Lima pointed out that agriculture remains a major base of the Philippine economy, one that remains afflicted by “traditional feudal relations of production, by backward, non-mechanized, non-irrigated, and with low output.”
Composed mainly of two programs, namely agrarian reform and rural development as well as national industrialization, NDFP and GRP negotiators have actually agreed on substantial points such as free land distribution before former President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his administration’s withdrawal from the negotiations in June 2017.
The president has yet to officially issue any response to the demands, letting former generals in his administration to disavow peace talks resumption.
The NDFP for its part has consistently said it is always open to the resumption of peace negotiations with any GRP administration sincere in resolving the 54-year old civil war in the country. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/7-1.png6171141Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-07-23 12:34:162023-07-23 12:34:18NDFP vows continuation of agrarian reform campaigns, ‘with or without peace talks’
A former Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) peace negotiator advised the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration to resume peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to help solve many of the government’s problems at once.
“This is an unsolicited advice: they resume the peace talks with the NDFP. Because, the first thing that may happen if things turn out well, there will be lasting ceasefire,” Braganza said in Filipino.
Braganza’s advice came after Esguerra asked him about Marcos’ signing of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act last July 7 relieving 610,054 agrarian reform beneficiaries of amortization fees.
Aside from being a formal and “backchannel” government peace negotiator under three successive administrations, Braganza also served as Department of Agrarian Reform secretary under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government.
Branganza said the loan pardon program was actually a NDFP-GRP agreement in 2017 under a more comprehensive free land distribution concord.
“It is in one of our documents, free land distribution. Of course, when we say free, it will be the responsibility of the government for our farmers. It is the same as debt condonation. This was part of the peace talks,” he said.
Braganza said they duly submitted the document to Malacañan Palace and expressed regret that the previous Rodrigo Duterte government did not continue with the negotiations.
“If Presidente Duterte pushed through with the talks, this could have been part of it. It could have helped pacify Filipinos who take up arms,” he said.
Joma’s jest
Braganza said it is up to the Marcos Jr. government to take another look at the peace process if it wants to solve many problems at the same time.
He said it is obvious that poverty, lack of jobs and livelihood as well as opportunities for economic development pushes many Filipinos to join the armed struggle against social injustices.
The veteran peace negotiator added that if the government wishes to address social problems, “[it] might as well put in in a document that could end the armed conflict in a much shorter period.”
“[This,] rather than wait for them to lay down arms. If you can solve this by negotiating, that’s it. That’s the entire idea of it,” he said.
Braganza recalled a jest by the late NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison who told the government negotiators: “You don’t have to talk to us. The government only needs to do its job.”
“Most of all, Mr. Joma Sison, when he was still alive, signed that he will go home to the Philippines if the free land distribution agreement was signed by the GRP,” he said.
From Marcos to Marcos
In response to Esguerra’s question if the current political atmosphere is conducive to the resumption of the peace talks with the NDFP, Braganza said it all depends on a sitting president’s political will.
“Well, first of all, how many million votes did the president get? Thirty-one million. It is bigger than the previous president, so it is a huge political capital,” he said.
Second, the Marcos Jr. government enjoys control over the Senate and the House of Representatives, he cited. “How can you go wrong?” he asked.
Braganza, a student activist during Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s reign, added that it would one of the better legacies of the current Marcos administration to end the armed conflict with the NDFP.
“[B]ecause majority of the problem of insurgency in the Philippines started with the implementation of martial law (by Marcos Sr.). So, if it started then, because they have the same surnames, wouldn’t it be better if this one ends it?” he asked.
Braganza said it would not be impossible, saying peace tables with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade and the Cordillera Peoples’ Liberation Army have successfully concluded under previous Manila governments.
“So it could be a good legacy for this administration to end what most of what started during the time of the father. It would be a good closure,” he said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/nani.jpg5491030Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-07-17 15:16:162023-07-17 15:20:20Ex-GRP negotiator advises resumption of peace talks with NDFP
San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said they mourn the “horrifying” deaths of the Fausto family killed last Wednesday, June 14, in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental allegedly by government soldiers.
In a petition released last Sunday, the prelate in neighboring Negros Oriental said he implores local and national government institutions to ensure justice for the victims and hold accountable those responsible for the massacre.
Brutally killed in their hut were Roly Fausto (55), his wife Emelda (50) and their children Ben (15) and Ravin (12) who had been repeatedly red-tagged and by the military weeks before their deaths.
Quoting a report by local human rights group September 21 Movement, Alminaza joined many organizations in identifying the Philippine Army’s 94th Infantry Battalion as alleged perpetrators of the “heinous act.”
“Our hearts are heavy as we witness the escalating militarization under the current (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) administration,” Bishop Alminaza said.
The bishop also blamed Executive Order 70 issued by former president Rodrigo Duterte institutionalizing the so-called whole-of-nation approach in the government’s counter-insurgency program and creating the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for the incident.
“The’ whole-of-nation approach’ advocated by the (NTF-ELCAC) has led to the weaponization of ‘red-tagging’, armed harassment, and senseless killings,” Alminaza said.
Alminaza offered a prayer as a plea for justice in his petition.
‘AFP are child killers’
Meanwhile, the Special Office for the Protection of Children (SOPC) of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) accused the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as child killers for the deaths of minors Ben and Ravin.
NDFP-SPOC head and NDFP Negotiating Panel member Coni Ledesma, a native of Negros Occidental, said her office vehemently condemns the “brutal massacre” by the said military unit.
“This heinous act is a blatant violation of the rights of the child and the special protections under international humanitarian law,” Ledesma said.
Ledesma said child rights violations have sharply increased under the Marcos Jr. government with reports of kidnappings, threats, forced evacuation, violence and murder.
In Negros Island alone, the NDFP has documented at least 22 cases of state violence involving children between the period of 2020 to 2022, Ledesma said, citing a special report by the Communist Party of the Philippines’ official organ Ang Bayan.
“The killing of the Fausto children and their parents exposes the AFP once more as lawless and mindless child killers. As commander-in-chief of the criminal, corrupt and brutal AFP, Marcos II is directly responsible for its war crimes against the Filipino people,” she said.
Ledesma also criticized the AFP for its penchant to blame the New People’s Army (NPA) for its reported crimes against civilians.
Philippine Army’s 303rd Infantry Battalion commander B/Gen. Orlando Edralin told reporters in a briefing last Thursday it was the NPA that killed the Faustos.
Edralin claimed that Roly had become a military asset prior to his death.
“Pinning the blame on the NPA is an old and tired tactic the AFP uses to escape accountability for its crimes against the people. Confirmed reports stated that on 22 March, both Emelda and Rolly Fausto were interrogated and harassed by military agents,” Ledesma however said.
“Even prior to the incident, the AFP has red-tagged the Fausto family, slaughtered their livestock, and ransacked their property in attempts to force admission of ties to the NPA,” she added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/justice.jpg768960Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-06-19 14:04:452023-06-19 19:14:08Negros Bishop pleads for justice for Faustos; NDFP accuses AFP as child killers
Newly-appointed national defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro reiterated his position against the peace negotiations with the revolutionary Left who in turn said they are not surprised at all.
Immediately after his re-appointment to the post, Teodoro said he had always been against the peace process with the Left, something he added is also the position of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration’s security sector.
“My personal position is ‘no’. That has always been my position ever since. And I think that is the position of the security cluster as of this time,” he told reporters last Thursday, June 8.
Appointed by Marcos Jr. as defense secretary for the second time last May 5, Teodoro first occupied the post from 2007 to 2009 under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presidency.
Instead of peace negotiations, Teodoro said armed members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) should instead return to the fold of law.
“We can talk about their issues in the proper forum—the Congress—and they should participate in the legitimate political process. The CPP is legal because Republic Act 1700 (law outlawing the CPP) has been repealed long ago,” Teodoro said in a mix of English and Filipino.
No surprise
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel was quick to rebuke the returning defense chief, saying they are not surprised by Teodoro’s position against the peace talks.
“After all, Teodoro comes from the same ilk of military warmongers who served Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and supported convicted war criminal Jovito Palparan,” NDFP peace panel chairperson Julie de Lima said Friday, June 9.
“Teodoro was one of the main implementors of Oplan Bantay Laya which is one of the bloodiest counterrevolutionary campaigns under the US-Arroyo regime,” de Lima added.
The NDFP said there have been documented human rights abuses under Teodoro and Macapagal-Arroyo, including aerial bombings in Mindanao and various cases of enforced disappearances as part of Oplan Bantay-Laya.
“We reiterate the NDFP’s policy of openness to peace negotiations. But at the same time, we see no signs of the current administration’s willingness to create the necessary conditions for peace talks to continue,” added de Lima.
De Lima said that while the revolutionary movement is always ready to talk peace with the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines), “they will persist in advancing the people’s war to defend the Filipino people against more brutal fascist attacks and US military intervention which [they] expect to intensify with the newly appointed DND chief.”
‘Calling a spade a spade’
The CPP for its part called Teodoro a “United States (US) factotum (servant)” who does not want to pursue peace because his real bosses want wars to continue to consume surplus US military hardware.
The CPP further alleged that Teodoro, corrupt officials in the Marcos Jr. government and general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) “keep their share of the fat contracts” under such programs as the so-called modernization of the military.
“Thus, it comes as no surprise that the recycled defense secretary declared that he has no plans of pursuing the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations. He is only interested in armed suppression and pacification of the revolutionary forces who represent the people’s profound aspirations for genuine social change,” CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said.
Valbuena also dismissed Teodoro’s demand for the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) to stop their armed struggle as “grossly ironic” given the defense chief’s personal history.
The CPP spokesperson recalled Teodoro chaired controversial companies Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) and Indophil Resources Corporation (formerly known as Glencore International) since 2015. Indophils owns 37.5% of SMI.
In September 2022, the local government of Tampakan, South Cotabato revoked SMI’s business permit for alleged fraud and misrepresentation, declaring itself to be a mineral exploration manufacturer but found to be operating as a general engineering contractor.
“So, do we expect him to have any interest in listening to the grievances of peasants and minority people who are being displaced in their hundreds of thousands by the expansion of mining companies? No. Can the people expect him to have any interest in addressing the socioeconomic and political roots of the current civil war in the country? No,” Valbuena said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/gibo.jpg11462048Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-06-09 18:33:302023-06-09 18:33:31Gibo’s anti-peace talks stance no surprise to the Left
The Visayas Command (VisCom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has announced the death of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant and alleged top New People’s Army (NPA) leader in Central Visayas Rogelio Posadas.
Announced to be missing since April 19 by the NDFP in Negros, the AFP last Saturday said Posadas was killed “after a series of encounters in the boundaries of Isabela and Balbagan” in Negros Occidental Province last April 20.
VisCom alleged Posadas was Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor regional committee secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
NDF-Negros and the NPA’s South Negros Command however said Posadas was first arrested and subsequently summarily executed by his captors in the manner that befell Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, Juanito Magbanua, Ericson Acosta, Jorge Madlos, Menandro Villanueva, Antonio Cabantan and other NDFP peace consultants in recent years.
Bayani Obrero, NDFP – Negros spokesperson said, “We believe Posadas and the other three were intercepted by state agents along the road. They are missing since April 19, around 6PM. They never reached their destination.”
The NPA’s Mt. Cansermon Command denied two encounters took place in Sitio Marikudo, Brgy. Camang-camang and Sitio Cabite, Brgy. Binalbagan, Negros Occidental on April 20, 2023.
The NPA said it strongly denounces the military’s claim, saying Posadas was in fact unlawfully apprehended, tortured and killed despite being defenseless.
In his January 9, 2015 arrest in Negros Oriental province, Posadas was identified by former NDFP Negotiating Panel chairperson Luis Jalandoni as a holder of NDFP Document of Identification Number ND978313 under the assumed name Angel Jose.
Posadas has also been issued a corresponding Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then GRP Negotiating Panel Chairperson Silvestre H. Bello III and was covered by the safety and immunity guarantees under the JASIG, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
Posadas was freed on March 7 of the same year after posting bail.
Still missing
The NDFP said Posadas was travelling with a “Ka (Comrade) Mikmik” and two motorcycle drivers hired to transport the two to their intended destination.
In a press conference in Negros Island last Sunday, the two motorcycle drivers were identified by their families as 21-year-old Renren delos Santos and 18-year-old Renald Mialen.
“Ka Mikmik” was also identified as 28-year old Lyngrace Martullinas.
In the press conference, delos Santos’ father said that witnesses had observed a white van obstructing two motorcycles, after which masked gunmen forced the riders into the van.
The announcement of Posadas’ death by the 303rd Infantry Brigade of Philippine Army did not mention other casualties and arrests. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
More groups condemned the reported deaths of top Communist Party of the Philippines leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon and the alleged manner in which they were killed by government soldiers.
Peasant groups Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and Anakpawis Party said the brutal slay of the couple prove the government’s disinterest in solving the root causes of the armed conflict in the country.
UMA said if only the government put as much effort into solving peasant landlessness and widespread hunger as they did in the cover-up, they could have easily ended the civil war the Tiamzons led.
“But they’d rather spend time and resources committing such disturbing war crimes instead.” UMA spokesperson John Milton Lozande said.
Acting UMA chairperson and former Anakpawis Party Representative Ariel Casilao said,“Killing CPP leaders doesn’t make Marcos a strong leader. What it does is reveal how weak he is at addressing the problems that have made common Filipinos willing to take up arms.”
“The government can end this war with genuine social reforms if it wanted to. Question is, does it want to?” Casilao added.
Casilao said they recognize that the armed revolution waged by the likes of the Tiamzons is aligned with the demands of the toiling masses, foremost of which is “seizing control of land from imperialists, compradors, and the landlords they worked with, and handing it over to the peasantry.”
The indigenous peoples’ groups meanwhile recalled when the Tiamzons took time to visit and consult with the Lakbayan ng mga Pambansang Minorya and Lumad bakwit at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman shortly after their second release from prison in 2016 to participate in the peace negotiations.
“They listened to us and advocated for the concerns and aspirations of national minorities to the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER). They sincerely sat at the negotiating table with the Duterte administration to work for peace and push for genuine development,” the groups said in their statement.
“For us national minorities, the Tiamzons and the organizations they represent, CPP-NPA-NDF, were never our enemy. It was not them (who) bombed our communities nor imposed destructive projects in our ancestral lands,” they said.
“They did not kill our leaders and chieftains who protect our lands and rights. They did not imprison or torture us for asserting our right to self-determination. The state and its Armed Forces are the ones that bring terror to our lands and lives,” the groups added.
Katribu, Sandugo and BAI said they call for the Tiamzons and their eight companions killed with them.
“They were revolutionaries, not terrorists. They did not deserve to be tortured and then mercilessly assassinated. If the worst criminals deserve humane treatment, all the more to well-meaning people like them pushing for peace, freedom, and development,” they said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/benitowilma.webp5631000Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2023-04-24 10:03:222023-04-24 10:04:47More groups call for justice for the Tiamzons
