A “retired” National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant was “abducted” with four others in Parañaque City, human rights group Karapatan’s Southern Tagalog office reported.
In an alert, Karapatan-Southern Tagalog said retired NDFP peace consultant Ernesto Lorenzo, along with Maria Fe Serrano, their driver Andrei Medina, their aide Plinky Longhas and another unidentified person, were “abducted” by the police while queuing up for COVID-19 vaccines at the Nayong Pilipino mega-vaccination site.
Ernesto Lorenzo attending a rally by Filipino migrant workers in Rome, Italy during a break in the third formal round of peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP in January 2017. (Photo by Jola Diones-Mamangun/Kodao)
Lorenzo, the group said, is a Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) protected peace negotiator with identification number 978299 under the assumed name of Lean Martinez.
The JASIG, signed by the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) in February 24, 1995, supposedly guarantees that negotiators, personnel and consultants of both the NDFP and the Manila government are immune against reprisals, including surveillance and arrests.
Lorenzo was consultant for Southern Tagalog and attended formal peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Rodrigo Duterte GRP up to January 2017.
He was a member of the NDFP Negotiating Panel’s Reciprocal Working Group on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces.
Lorenzo was earlier arrested in July 2015 on charges of destructive arson but was released along with several other jailed NDFP consultants to participate in formal negotiations in Europe.
President Duterte terminated negotiations with the NDFP in 2017 and has since repeatedly vowed to arrest all NDFP consultants who were released for the talks.
Serrano is the widow of former NDFP peace consultant for Mindoro Eduardo Serrano who died in prison in January 2016.
Karapatan-Southern Tagalog said the five’s whereabouts are unknown as of the issuance of its alert.
Davao consultant ‘tortured and murdered’
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) complained that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) tortured and subsequently murdered NDFP peace consultant for Southern Mindanao Ezequiel Daguman.
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said Daguman was the 20th known revolutionary and peace consultant murdered by the GRP under Duterte.
Valbuena, in an April 2 statement, said Daguman was killed while in the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) after he was abducted last March 7 in New Corella, Davao del Norte.
The AFP announced on March 28 that Daguman was killed in a supposed encounter on March 27 in Maragusan, Davao de Oro.
The CPP said that Daguman was assigned as the peace consultant representing the provinces of Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro whose JASIG identification was signed by the Manila government and the NDFP in 1995.
Valbuena added that Daguman’s death in the hands of government soldiers is proof that he “remained true to the revolutionary cause.”
“The AFP has repeatedly used fake encounters to justify and cover-up the most atrocious crimes against non-combatants and civilians,” Valbuena said, pointing to how NPA spokesperson Jorge Madlos and national commander Menandro Villanueva were also killed by military forces after being arrested.
Both Madlos and Villanueva were reportedly seeking medical care at the time the AFP claimed they died in firefights with government soldiers.
Valbuena added that NDFP peace consultant Edwin Alcid, together with two others, remains at the hands of the AFP and his whereabouts are still unknown since his arrest last March 7 in Barangay San Jose, Catubig, Northern Samar.
“We will hold the officers of the AFP directly responsible for any harm that may befall Alcid and his companions,” Valbuena said.
Valbuena also revealed that they have received information that NDFP peace consultant Esteban Manuel is being kept in solitary confinement in a military camp in Samar after his arrest last February. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ndf.webp5761024Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2022-04-11 21:03:582022-04-11 21:30:17Retired NDFP consultant ‘abducted’ in Parañaque
(The author has been covering the peace process between the NDFP and the GRP and has interviewed Jorge ‘Ka Oris’ Madlos on several occasions. Here is the journalist’s look-back on one of his most respected sources.)
He was inside a swidden hut that Christmas night I first laid eyes on Mindanao’s legendary rebel leader. An electric bulb was casting a wan glow on a makeshift porch and Jorge Madlos was wearing a stubby flashlight on his forehead as he furiously tapped on his laptop, seemingly unaware of the frenzied atmosphere around him. It was the eve of the Communist Party of the Philippines’s (CPP) 42nd founding anniversary and the then National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)-Mindanao spokesperson was busy polishing the statement he was to issue the next day.
His comrades directed us to a nearby creek to wash up, noticing our pants and shoes were caked with drying mud, victims of several spills on rice paddies and mud puddles on the way to the New People’s Army (NPA) encampment on Mt. Diwata’s foothills. Finding our way back to his hut, Madlos, more famous as Ka Oris, was done typing, beaming a toothy smile and waiting to finally welcome the new arrivals from the city.
“Maligayang pagdating. Salamat sa pagpunta. Kumusta ang biyahe?” Oris asked, eager to hear what we had to say in return. (Welcome. Thank you for coming. How was your trip?) His interest was understandable; we have been told he had a direct hand in organizing the trips. He had done so in the many decades that he welcomed to NPA camps journalists and many other kinds of visitors.
He invited us to dinner, a surprisingly sumptuous fare of adobo and lechon on heaps of piping hot fragrant mountain rice. “Are these the ones being cooked in the barrios we passed by?” we asked. “No. What the masses are cooking tonight will be brought to the celebrations tomorrow. December 26 is their real holiday,” he said. “These adobo and lechon are gifts from local politicians,” he added, laughing. Oris however had fish stew, a healthier meal to manage his urination problems brought about by a spine infection.
It was getting late and Oris held back on asking the many questions he was also known for. Journalists from all over trooped to where they could get hold of him, but he was equally famous for quizzing them in turn. “Baka pagod na kayo. Maaga tayo bukas. Doon sa may mangga ang pwesto niyo,” he said, pointing to where our tents were being put up. (You may already be tired. We have an early day tomorrow. Your tents are being put up under that mango tree.)
We almost never got the chance to have Oris to ourselves again the next day. Along with the thousands of attendees who descended on an open field were Mindanaoan reporters and national and international journalists there to cover the biggest story of the day and interview one of the country’s media darlings. Even journalists who were known to be critical of the communists were invited and welcomed.
During the celebrations, we witnessed firsthand how Oris was one of the journalists’ most beloved sources, especially by Mindanaoan reporters. He had ordered special spots for us to be able to take good photos of the NPA parade. He issued us press passes and badges that were proudly worn the entire day. He made the press conference part of the day long celebrations, fielding the seemingly never-ending stream of questions with dashes of wry humor. He repeatedly thanked the journalists who came, easily identifying which parts of Mindanao or elsewhere in the world they were from or writing for. He handed out “certificates of attendance,” accepted with much jollity and, I suspect, are being kept to this day. A “class picture” with the journalists capped our day, with Oris at the center, looking much like a grandfatherly school principal among wards. I very much doubt any Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general went as famously with the journalists as the diminutive guerilla did.
Hard-nosed journalists emerge satisfied with every interview session with Oris. He was obviously naturally intelligent, conversant in at least four languages. Questions designed to trap him were deftly turned around, such as, “You have been waging this war for decades, yet you have failed to win,” to which Oris replied, “The much stronger government and imperialists could not defeat us either.” A correspondent of an international news wire agency asked, “Will it not be more difficult for the movement at this time, given that President Aquino is popular?” “He is not popular in our areas of control,” was Oris’ riposte.
The AFP was furious at the brazenness of the CPP celebrations that day that, despite the existence of ceasefire declarations, it put up checkpoints on the roads leading out of the area to harass attendees on their way home. The local Philippine Army (PA) battalion commander was in a towering rage, sources said, especially when a politician’s mindless aide delivered his donation of lechon to the PA camp, instead of the intended NPA camp. “Mabuhi ang CPP! Mabuhi ang NPA!” the mayor’s written message on the lechon carton reportedly read.
At about three in the afternoon and while the celebrations were still on full blast, Oris granted us some time to ask him about the NDFP’s peace negotiations with the Benigno Aquino government. With the 15-minute interview over, he suggested we hitch a ride with other civilian attendees out of the area later that afternoon. “There will be other opportunities for us to talk. It is more important that you get home safe. Thank you for spending today with your friendly NPA,” he jestingly said. There, tired and preoccupied with everyone’s safety, Oris’ famous brand of humor sent us on our way home.
It took us another four years to get another chance to cover Ka Oris in a CPP anniversary celebration. This time, the AFP was more vociferous in preventing the thousands from attending CPP’s 46th anniversary celebrations. Even with local politicians and a congressman telling government soldiers that the mutual rebel and government-declared ceasefires allowed for another open CPP celebration, they delayed the attendees by hours. Revelations that the occasion would even be attended by a Malacanan Palace emissary for peace negotiations consultations were ignored. Many other journalists were also delayed.
As in 2011, I and some colleagues arrived at the venue on Christmas night precisely to avoid the hassle of passing through AFP checkpoints in broad daylight when they are known to be braver. We also hoped to spend more time with Oris alone before the frenzy sets in. When we arrived however, he was already busy welcoming the throng arriving with us, including a group of Catholic nuns. What he did not fail in doing was to ask how our trip was, insisting that we grab a bite and ensuring we have a place to sleep.
The rumpus the government soldiers caused prevented Oris from giving us time for an exclusive interview in the morning. What he did was to give a presser for the many journalists who arrived and answer all our questions as per usual. He also gave copies of the statement he read in the delayed program. Later, he managed to give Kodao an on-cam interview. When it was time for goodbyes, he made sure we would be safe in our travels, as was his wont.
Sometime in between those two coverage, we received a letter from Oris, saying it is time for that exclusive no-time-limit interview. I thought it would be in the same type of area and I packed lightly. It turned out that the venue was at a major NPA camp up high in the mountains. From one of the island’s major cities, it took me and my guide the entire day to travel by bus to a fairly large central Mindanao town and by motorcycle up more and taller mountains. When we ran out of roads and began seeing NPA fighters by the roadside, I thought we’ve reached our destination. I was then told we were just halfway up. What followed was a night-time climb up steep and narrow mountain trails, slogging through swamps and crossing burbling creeks, aided only by small flashlights. We reached camp at near two o’clock in the morning and there was Oris, waiting for us while boiling water to disinfect his urinary drainage bags (urobags).
“You made it!” he beamed, offering us the unique Mindanao NPA handshake. “How was your trip?” he asked, this time with a guffaw, seeing I was near collapse, tethering on my walking stick. Again, beside him, also beaming, was Alvin Luque, alias Ka Joaquin Jacinto, the activist who succeeded Oris as NDFP-Mindanao spokesperson. (Oris and Luque, both ill at the time of their respective deaths, were killed by government soldiers less than a year apart.)
The next morning, Oris gave us a tour of the camp where huge tents housed activists on week-long educational discussions. Other tents served as offices, kitchens and dining halls. All around were individual huts for camp regulars. No, there were no huts or tents that served as armory. He then invited us to conduct the interview, “Before the noisy insects start their concert.”
But the ever-curious Oris wanted something from us in return. He asked young-looking NPA fighters to observe as we set up our equipment. After the interview came his string of questions on which cameras, tripod, microphones, lights and other equipment would best survive their environment. He encouraged his comrades to ask questions on camera panning, tilting and tracking as well as visual composition he obviously already read up on. Months later, the rebels would be uploading videos of Oris issuing statements online.
It was brutally cold on our second night in the mountaintop NPA camp and I began shivering as soon as I tried to go to sleep. I wore all my shirts underneath my thin jacket to no avail. It did not help that my sleeping station was a hammock fashioned from rice sacks under a plastic sheet (tarapal). Past midnight, I felt hands lifting my malong and putting a soda bottle filled with warm water between my legs. It was Oris. Noticing I was woken, he whispered; “I can hear you shivering. This will warm you up.” It indeed did and I slept restfully until morning.
It was time for us to go back home the next day and we left with another special Oris quip: “You are welcome for the honor of visiting another NPA camp,” he said, his eyes twinkling.
It turned out that those were my only chances to personally interview Jorge Madlos. There have been two other CPP anniversaries I covered in Mindanao since. One was in Surigao del Norte 2015 and the biggest yet in Davao City in 2016 when even several Rodrigo Duterte government Cabinet members were in attendance. We were informed that Oris may attend both occasions, but the AFP was even more determined to get him, ongoing peace negotiations notwithstanding. He stayed out.
On October 29, 2021, the AFP killed the 73-year old icon of the revolution in the Philippines. His wife Maria Malaya said Oris was unarmed and was on his way to a medical treatment with an aide when waylaid by the soldiers. Possibly in spite, government soldiers cremated his remains a few days later without giving his family the chance to view his remains one last time. In a twisted way, this could be understood as their way of getting back at Oris even more for eluding them for more than five decades.
Jorge Madlos, Mindanao’s most successful rebel leader and one the Philippines’ most legendary communist cadres, is physically gone. But it would have been nice for me to meet him one last time and field the one question I had long wanted to ask: Did the warm water bottle come from his urobag disinfection ritual? #
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/oris3.jpg567960Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2021-11-04 17:30:182021-11-05 15:48:13One last question I wanted to ask Jorge ‘Ka Oris’ Madlos
A former radio broadcaster recalls her visit to a New People’s Army camp and interview with Jorge Madlos who cultivated warm relations with many journalists for several decades.
By Katniss
It was in June 2004. I was invited to climb the mountains and trek the forests of Surigao to see Ka Oris. I was told farmers in Surigao communities as well as the “nice people” there are avid listeners of the radio program I anchored. The radio station on which my radio program aired, though based in Cebu City, could reach as far as Mindanao, particularly in the provinces of Surigao. Ka Oris wanted me to share ideas about how our radio programs were produced and he also wanted me to share my experiences and help them in setting up programs in certain regions in Mindanao.
From the highway, it was two to three hours ride on a habal-habal (a motorcycle kitted with wood planks that take in more passengers and cargo). Then it was more than an hour of walk into the forests and patches of farms before I finally reached a huge guerilla camp. There was a huge stage made of hard wood where cultural activities were being held; a kitchen area; and several makeshift huts and barracks where visitors like me are accommodated serving as our sleeping area. It was still daylight when I reached the place. Everyone was wearing boots because, even if it wasn’t raining, one cannot avoid walking on muddy grounds. I was also told that, since it’s a forest, there were also leeches. At that time and at that age I was not so worried about the leeches then but more so about the difficulty of walking and moving around in those heavy rubber boots. I saw several young guerrilla fighters and was told that they were on military training. There were two other foreign visitors in the camp. They told me they were from BBC, documenting the training and interviewing about the guerilla war in the Philippines.
After dinner, I overheard one Red Fighter who whispered to one woman in charge of the camp that there is a report of suspicious movements in the peripheries of the camp. The woman instructed the fighter to send a squad to check.
On my first night, I was not able to sleep while lying in a hammock in the barracks. I was so bothered with what I’ve heard. What if are attacked? What will I do? I could not run in those boots. What if I am hit or arrested? Sleep would not come despite the exhaustion. My mind was preoccupied with “what ifs” I felt paranoid. At 9 pm, I started having chills. It was either due to the coldness of the night inside the forest or because of the anxiety that I felt. I decided to rise and go to the hut of Ka Oris and his wife. I told him what I felt and how worried and scared I was. Calmly, he explained something which to this day I can still vividly recall.
He told me: “In this camp, which is in a deep forest, there are more than 100 red fighters. In our surrounding peripheries there are squads on guard while doing their mass work. Beyond the peripheries are mass bases. All this means that those supposedly unknown movements detected may just be some farmers who are on their way to their farms. If they are really soldiers or enemies, they must be a handful who may have just wandered around. The squads can take care of them. Otherwise, if the enemy has targeted our camp, they could not just send a few troops, knowing our strength. Usually, feeling insecure in battles, their ratio is one NPA red fighter to 10 of their soldiers. With the number of troops that we have here in this camp, they need to send a battalion of soldiers. If they do so, such huge troop movement can already be detected several tens of kilometers away from us.”
So I asked him, “What if they send troops by helicopter?”
He answered, “Well, in one helicopter there are only less than 10 who can be carried. They could also not land in this forest itself but perhaps in the peripheries where there are patches of farmlands. And we have the capacity to shoot at helicopters.” Ka Oris went on to tell me about an incident in the 80’s incident when the very camp we were at suffered aerial bombing by government forces. He said they were able to fight back then and the enemy failed to penetrate the forest.
Oris calm explanations relaxed me and I was able to finally sleep in my hammock.
I again visited him in his hut the following morning. I started my interview with him regarding the series of press conferences he conducted with journalists from all over, as well as politicians in the guerilla areas. I had long been curious about how were they able to do that despite the risks of being attacked. He again explained their application of strategies and tactics taught by Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War.’ That interview made up for an entire episode of my radio show.
I was star-struck by him, I admit. He was gentle, calm and witty. He also looked like Ho Chi Min. Ka Oris invited me to quiz me on radio production, but it was I who learned so much from them. Their life was difficult, something I could not imagine myself doing nor enduring. City slickers like me who are easily afflicted with fear may find living their life impossible. But Oris and his guerilla army looked like it was a life worth living. How profound, noble, and self-fulfilling it seemed.
I wanted another visit and another opportunity to interview Ka Oris. But I got pregnant in the last quarter of 2005 and got married soon after.
As a radio personality, I have had my share of death threats in 2005. I was accused as “a communist masquerading as a journalist.” I was advised to stop being a radio anchor for my safety.
I still keep on monitoring media interviews of Ka Oris by local, national and even international media. I am still be amazed by his brilliance and commitment to their revolution as well as his persistence in pursuing the humaneness of his communist ideals. But there remains in me a tinge of guilt for failing in a simple request he asked of me. When I was leaving their camp in 2004, he gave me a specialty notebook and a nice pen to hand over to his daughter. I tried but I never get the chance of meeting his daughter.
I left Cebu in 2015 and I remember that I brought that notebook and pen with me to where I relocated. After hearing of Ka Oris’ death at the hands of his enemies, I must commit to finding where I placed the notebook and pen. Who knows, one day, I will be able to meet his daughter in the future.
To Ka Oris, my highest salute. To his daughter, I still owe you the notebook and pen from your father. Like the many journalists who admire him, he will always be to me the kind, gentle, heroic icon of the Filipino people’s struggle for social justice and liberation. #
(“Katniss” is a pseudonym.)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Ka-Oris-1.jpg6881082Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2021-11-02 12:03:412021-11-03 16:53:25A visit to Ka Oris' guerilla camp
“Ka Oris had long wished to return to Siargao Island where he grew up as a boy. Perhaps, his wish could be fulfilled.”–CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it supports the wishes of Ka Oris’ family to retrieve his remains and conduct a proper wake for the fallen New People’s Army (NPA) spokesperson.
In a statement, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said that the military is engaged in a cover-up of the real circumstances surrounding Oris and his aide’s deaths and their families are in a position to demand for an autopsy by an independent pathologist.
Oris (born Jorge Madlos) and his aide the CPP identified as Ka Pika (Eighfel Dela Peña) were killed on Friday in Sitio Gabunan, Barangay Dumalaguing, Impasug-ong town in Bukidnon.
The CPP’s statement came after reports quoted 403rd Infantry Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Ferdinand Barandon saying Oris and Pika will be buried at the “encounter site” if found to be COVID-19 positive.
A Rappler report said the military showed to reporters a photograph of a dead person who resembled Oris being swabbed for COVID-19 at the “encounter site.”
Barandon reportedly said Oris’ remains was swabbed so that samples could be tested for COVID-19, citing other NPA rebels killed in clashes with the military or have been arrested since October showed COVID-19 symptoms.
If the swab tests turn up negative, Barandon said the bodies would be brought down to Impasug-ong town proper and turned over to the Philippine National Police.
Valbuena said Oris had long wished to return to Siargao Island where he grew up.
“Perhaps, his wish could be fulfilled,” the CPP spokesperson said.
Murder
In his statement, Valbuena echoed National Democratic Front of the Philippines-North East Mindanao Region spokesperson and Oris’ widow Maria Malaya’s accusation that the NPA spokesperson and his aide were murdered and not killed in an encounter.
“Ka Oris and aide Eighfel Dela Peña (Ka Pika) were both unarmed when ambushed. Whether they were ambushed while moving or were accosted and thereafter executed is still unclear,” Valbuena said.
In a news conference at Camp Osito Bahian in Malaybalay City, Major General Romeo Brawner Jr., commander of the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division, claimed Oris and Pika were killed in an encounter with 8th Infantry Battalion, the 1st Special Forces Battalion, and Scout Ranger soldiers.
Malaya however said Oris and Pika were riding a motorcycle on their way to seek medical treatment.
The elderly Oris was publicly known to have suffered from renal failure for years.
“Clearly, however, they were not in a position to give battle or fight back and were murdered in cold-blood,” Valbuena said.
Cover-up
Valbuena added the aerial strikes in the vicinity of Barangay Dumalaguing the military first claimed killed Oris were done four hours after the NPA spokesperson and his aide were killed.
“For around two hours, from 12:40 a.m. to past 2 a.m. the AFP dropped at least six large bombs, fired dozens of rockets and strafed the mountainside shattering the peace and causing fear and panic among the people,” he said.
The bombing was to conceal the military’s “crime of murdering unarmed revolutionaries and create a false picture of an armed encounter,” he said.
“They then issued a fat lie claiming of an armed encounter at 11 am (10 hours later) where Ka Oris and Ka Pica were supposedly killed,” Valbuena said.
The CPP said that Brawner and other 4th ID officers’ statements to reporters were brazen lies.
“They are utterly dishonorable officers for propagating false information. We hold Gen. Brawner and the men and officers of the 403 IBde responsible for the murder of Ka Oris and Ka Pica and its coverup,” he said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/oris.jpg5831024Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2021-11-01 11:06:522021-11-01 11:17:33CPP to AFP: Give Oris’ remains back to his family
Ka Oris is dead, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in North-East Mindanao Region (NDFP-NEMR) confirmed.
In a statement, NDFP-NEMR spokesperson Maria Malaya said government forces ambushed and killed Oris, born Jorge Madlos, while on board a motorcycle in the town of Impasug-ong Bukidnon last October 29, Friday.
Malaya clarified that 4th Infantry Division commander Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner’s claim that Oris was killed in an encounter with government soldiers was a lie.
“Ka Oris and his female medic were onboard a motorcycle from the poblacion of the town of Impasug-ong, Bukidnon going towards the national highway where, it is believed, they were ambushed and killed. They never reached the highway,” Malaya said.
The NDFP-NEMR spokesperson said that, according to their sources, there was no gunfight and the military did not conduct an airstrike in the area.
Oris was unarmed and was on his way to a medical treatment, Malaya said.
The prominent revolutionary was publicly known to be suffering from a renal ailment.
Malaya added that the military is still in possession of Oris’ remains.
“We challenge Brig. Gen. Brawner to reveal to the media and the public what really happened, to not be a big liar, for only then can he truly take pride in his achievement of killing Ka Oris,” she said.
Oris was a legendary New People’s Army commander for several decades and was the revolutionary army’s national operational command spokesperson at the time of his death.
NDFP-NEMR said it hopes the Rodrigo Duterte government will allow a public wake for Oris, similar to what Duterte, then Davao City mayor, allowed for Leoncio Pitao in 2015. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oris.jpg10001500Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2021-10-31 18:20:172021-10-31 18:20:55NDFP in Northeast Mindanao confirms Oris’ death
The Commission on Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross had been asked to regularly check on the condition of three political prisoners designated by a government task force as alleged terrorists.
In a statement, political detainee support group Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim asked the two agencies to ensure the safety of her husband Vicente Ladlad and fellow National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants Rey Claro Casambre and Adelberto Silva.
“I have reason to fear for their lives because seven consultants of the (NDFP) have already been murdered within the last two years,” Lim said.
Lim’s appeal was in reaction to a resolution released Thursday, May 13, by the Anti-Terrorism Council designating 19 individuals as alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippine Central Committee and as so-called terrorists.
Aside from Ladlad, Casambre and Silva, the list includes NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison, New People’s Army National Operations Command spokesperson Jorge Madlos, NDFP Negotiating Panel interim chairperson Julietta de Lima, NDFP Negotiating Panel Member Benito Tiamzon and NDFP peace consultants Alan Jazmines, Wilma Tiamzon, Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bocala, Tirso Alcantara, Pedro Codaste, and Loida Magpatoc.
The list also includes alleged CPP officials Abdias Gaudiana, Dionesio Micabato, Myrna Sularte, Tomas Dominado and Menandro Villanueva.
Five of the NDFP peace consultants killed in the last two years referred to by Lim include Randy Malayao, Randall Echanis, Julius Giron, Eugenia Magpantay, and Agaton Topacio.
Lim said the ATC listing is being used to persecute individuals and maliciously jumping the gun on the ongoing Supreme Court deliberations on the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
The ATC’s designation needs a court order to become official.
‘Treacherous’
The CPP for its part denounced the ATC list as arbitrary, dismissing it a mere recycled record of unsubstantiated allegations from so-called military intelligence.
“The arbitrary naming of known peace consultants and revolutionaries underscore why the Anti-Terror Law and the ATC itself are illegitimate and should be repudiated. It was done in complete contempt of judicially recognized due process,” the CPP said.
“It is a veritable slap on face of the justices of the Supreme Court who have yet to complete hearings over questions of the constitutionality of the Anti-Terror Law,” the group added.
The CPP also said the ATC list is an act of treachery against the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the peace process.
“This act of the ATC is (GRP President Rodrigo) Duterte getting back at the NDFP for not bowing to his wishes for the revolutionary forces to surrender their principles to his fascist tyranny,” the CPP said.
Human rights group Karapatan also said the ATC designation of NDFP peace panel members and consultants as alleged terrorists is “red-tagging in its most blatant and most dangerous.”
The designation is “brazenly arbitrary that it violates basic principles of due process — and whose consequences have proven to be deadly,” the group said.
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay asked the Supreme Court to act with urgency on their petitions to declare the terror law unconstitutional or at least issue a temporary restraining order against the law.
“[T]he Duterte administration is wasting no time using this draconian piece of legislation to heighten the crackdown on dissent and reign of terror. We call on the public to continue asserting the calls to junk the terror law and resist Duterte’s tyranny and dictatorship,” Palabay said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fides.jpg490768Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2021-05-14 08:55:062021-05-14 19:11:39CHR, Red Cross asked to ensure safety of jailed peace consultants in ATC list
The New People’s Army (NPA) hit at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for parading “thousands of fake surrenderees” nationwide.
In a video message, NPA National Operations Command spokesperson Jorge Madlos said many of those paraded by the AFP before President Rodrigo Duterte are in fact members of their own paramilitary forces or innocent civilians who were forced by the military to pose as surrenderees.
“When we checked, the (AFP) list includes 36 Lumad paramilitaries from Lianga (Surigao del Sur) who are also on the list of those who massacred three fellow Lumads in September 1 (2015),” Madlos said.
Madlos added that the 36 paramilitary troopers are being led by Calpet Egua who is reported to have been trained, armed, supported and protected by the Philippine Army.
“The AFP uses this paramilitary group as fake NPA surrenderees to clear their names as having been involved in the massacre,” Madlos said.
Madlos, also known by his nom de guerre as Ka Oris, said it adds insult to injury that the so-called surrenderees were given houses and lots as well as pocket money by Duterte in a ceremony in Malacañan Palace.
Madlos said that the AFP also picked up civilians who were later presented as surrenderees as well as those who have long left the NPA and have already been living as ordinary farmers.
“They were again picked up and recycled as new surrenderees,” Madlos said.
“Although, in fact, there were real surrenderees, such as the alleged National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Far South Mindanao spokesperson,” he added, referring to Nilo Legaspi and his wife who surrendered last January.
Madlos said real surrenderees are very few and were only mixed with thousands of fake surrenderees.
The five or ten surrenderees does not make for a mass surrender of NPA forces, Madlos said.
Both Duterte and the AFP have repeatedly said the NPA is down to a few thousands of fighters left.
Far from being defeated
In January, former AFP chief of staff Rey Guerrero said the military is committed to weaken by 50 percent the NPA, which he said has only about 3,700 fighters nationwide.
In its presentation of hundreds of surrenderees to Duterte, the AFP said the so-called surrenderees were part of 4,000 who recently abandoned armed struggle.
“These are indicators of growing discontent within their organizations, the success of our programs, and the cooperation between residents and local government units,” AFP spokesperson Col. Edgard Arevalo said in a press conference last January.
Netizens, however, pointed out that the Duterte government in fact presented 300 more so-called surrendered members than the AFP’s claim of NPA’s 3,700 fighters.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said in their 49th anniversary statement last March that the NPA has more than a hundred guerilla fronts with at least company sized formations in addition as many People’s Militia units all over the country.
The CPP also said that Duterte and the AFP are wasting public funds on fake surrenderees.
“Over the past few months, Duterte himself and the entire military and defence establishment have spent hundreds of millions of pesos to stage Malacañang dinners with the president, tours around Luneta and other cheap gimmickry. The bigger portion of the monies, of course, line the pockets of armed forces field officials,” the CPP said in a statement last March.
“If we are to believe claims made by officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at the end of 2017 that the NPA is down to 3,700 members, then by simple subtraction, one can conclude that the AFP under Duterte has already accomplished what the previous regimes have failed to do: defeat the NPA,” it added.
In a separate announcement, CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison said the NPA is nowhere near being defeated, being present in at least 73 of the country’s 81 provinces.
Sison added that NPA presence in these provinces “denotes the existence of the people´s militia and the self-defense units of the revolutionary mass organizations. These two layers of people´s defense are the auxiliary and reserve force of the NPA.” # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/duterte.jpg8001200Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2018-07-11 17:30:552018-07-11 17:30:55Oris: Many surrenderees AFP’s own
THE National Operational Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) has announced all its units can now “take full initiative” as the 10-day grace period for the termination of its unilateral ceasefire declaration expired today.
“Starting today, the Unilateral Declaration of Interim Ceasefire is now completely terminated. All NPA commands and territorial units, as well as people’s militia and self defense units, can now take the full initiative to defend the people and advance their interests, especially in the face of the declaration of all-out war of the (Rodrigo) Duterte regime,” NPA spokesperson Jorge ‘Ka Oris’ Madlos in a statement said. Read more
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IMG_9839.jpg10001500Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2017-02-11 20:42:062017-02-11 20:42:06NPA to launch offensives vs GRP’s all-out war—Ka Oris
National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao spokesperson Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos delivers their statement on the 47th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Madlos says the New People’s Army in Mindanao has doubled its tactical offensives against the Armed Forces of the Philippines from 250 in 2010 to more than 500 in 2015 as the Benigno Aquino administration is about to end. He also announced that the NPA has increased its guerrilla fronts from 40 in 2010 to 46 in 2015. Furthermore, NPA operations has increased from 1,850 barrios in 2010 to 2,500 barrios in 2015.
Madlos did not attend the anniversary celebrations held in Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte because of the heavy military presence in the adjacent Zapanta Valley. Philippine Army checkpoints did not deter the thousands of guests from attending the celebrations, however.
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/3.jpg7501000Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2015-12-30 04:24:032015-12-30 04:24:03NDFP-Mindanao on the CPP's 47th anniversary (w/ English subtitles)
