Reportedly captured, tortured and killed on August 21, 2022 with wife Wilma Austria and eight others:
“Happiness is in the revolution. I could not think of any other life. There is no other way. The revolution is not a burden, an obligation I perform with a heavy heart. It comes out naturally.”—BENITO TIAMZON, Communist Party of the Philippines Executive Committee Chairperson
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today confirmed Benito Tiamzon, chairman of its executive committee, and his wife, Wilma Austria Tiamzon, its secretary general, are dead.
Contrary to stories told by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) however that the top Communist leaders were killed when their boat was blown up by government troopers in the sea off Samar province, the CPP said the two and companions were captured near Catbalogan City last August 21.
They were then heavily tortured and killed, CPP spokesperson Marco Valbuena in a statement said.
“The entire leadership and membership of the (CPP) condemn in the strongest terms the (AFP) for the brutal torture and cowardly killing of Party leaders Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan) and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon (Ka Bagong-tao), together with eight other revolutionaries after they were captured in Samar province on August 21, 2022,” Valbuena’s statement said.
Benito was 71 while Wilma was 70, the CPP said.
The group said the two were travelling with Ka Divino (Joel Arceo), a subregional secretary in Eastern Visayas, along with Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, Ka Butig who all belonged to the guerrilla force of the central headquarters.
In a report, the CPP’s political bureau said the Tiamzons were traveling on two separate vans along the national highway eastwards towards Catbalogan City. They were flagged down between 12:00 noon and 1:00 in the afternoon, after which all communications with the group were lost.
They were unarmed, the group said.
Valbuena said it took them took several weeks to investigate reports the AFP released last year about the Tiamzon’s death off the western coast of Samar island. He said it also took them months to piece together the details of the capture and subsequent massacre of the Tiamzons and companions.
The AFP said the Tiamzons were killed when their boat exploded while engaging in a firefight with the military’s Joint Task Force Storm, the 8th Infantry Division and the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trident in the early morning hours of August 22, 2022 off the coast of Catbalogan.
The Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trident is a unit trained and commanded by the US (United States of America) military, the CPP said.
“The claimed mid-sea firefight and explosion were all a drama hatched by the AFP and its US military advisers, to hide all evidence of the ignominy of their fascist crime. In truth, the already lifeless bodies of the Tiamzons and their group were dumped on a motorboat filled with explosives, and tugged from Catbalogan midway towards Taranganan island before it was detonated. Only eight bodies were subsequently retrieved by the military,” Valbuena said.
‘Heavily tortured’
According to the information gathered by the CPP Central Committee, the Tiamzons were in fact captured and suffered severe beating in the hands of their captors, citing witnesses who saw how the faces and bodies of the victims were smashed with hard objects.
“The murder of the Tiamzons follow the pattern of the wilful killings perpetrated by the AFP against captured revolutionaries. The same cruel and cowardly methods were used in the killing of Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris), Menandro Villanueva (Ka Bok), Antonio Cabantan (Ka Manlimbasog), Julius Giron (Ka Nars) and a number of others,” Valbuena said.
Valbuena added that the CPP demands justice for the August 21 massacre of the Tiamzons and companions, naming top AFP generals and commander in chief President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as among those responsible.
The Tiamzons were last seen publicly when they participated in several formal peace negotiations in Norway, Italy and the Netherlands in 2016 and 2017 with the Rodrigo Duterte administration of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
They also attended several peace forums in the Philippines before again going underground when the talks collapsed due to orders from Duterte and the military.
Benito and Wilma were top graduates of Rizal High School in Pasig City before becoming a couple while they were University of the Philippines students.
They were already members of several revolutionary organizations when they went underground after President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law in 1972.
Along with Giron, the Tiamzons were the highest-ranking CPP leaders who were allegedly killed by the AFP. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) praised the New People’s Army (NPA) on its 54th founding anniversary Wednesday, March 29, citing achievements and victories through more than five decades of revolutionary armed struggle in the country.
In a statement, the CPP said the NPA has defeated numerous government campaigns of encirclement and suppression from the first Marcos regime to the present, growing from its original “60 fighters and commanders, nine automatic rifles, 26 single-shot rifles and handguns, and a mass base of around 80,000 in the first district of Tarlac province.”
While balance of forces overwhelmingly remain in favor of the Manila government, the CPP said the NPA has fought indefatigably over the over the decades and “it has grown by leaps and bounds.”
In its 54th founding anniversary statement last December 26, the CPP said the NPA currently has more than 110 guerilla fronts all over the country.
“The NPA is the most powerful weapon of the Party for waging the people’s democratic revolution. It carries out protracted people’s war along the strategic line of encircling the cities from the countryside,” the CPP said.
The revolutionary group said the NPA has adapted to the particular conditions of the country, achieving “great successes in carrying out guerrilla warfare, building guerrilla zones and base areas, and establishing Red political power covering vast areas in the countryside.”
“Day by day, the seeds of the future people’s democratic government are sown in thousands of villages across the country, existing side by side with and antithesis to the present reactionary and fascist government,” it added.
‘Heavier tasks’
The CPP said the NPA however faces heavier and greater tasks ahead, needing to “surmount and defeat the intensified campaigns of encirclement and armed suppression being carried out by the US puppet army,” referring to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“We must continue to accumulate strength by smashing the AFP part by part in order to bring the people’s war from its current level to the next higher level. The Party and NPA remain fully determined to carry forward the people’s war to victory,” it said.
The CPP said NPA commanders and Red fighters have to “stir up and spread the flames of the people’s war for national freedom and democracy.”
The underground party cited “intensified imperialist oppression against the Filipino people” and emphasized the need to “attain freedom from US control and domination, and carry out land reform and national industrialization” which it said are key steps to improve the lives of the Filipino people.
It also denounced the plan of the US to construct more military bases in the Philippines to use the country “as part of its war theater preparations against China.”
The CPP said “the broad masses of the Filipino people are suffering from increasingly intolerable forms of oppression and exploitation… they are ever determined to wage resistance in order to free the country from clutches of US imperialism and the subservient ruling classes, and attain genuine national freedom and democracy.”
‘It lasts because it is loved’
In a separate statement, the NPA in Southern Panay said it joins all revolutionary forces in the country in celebrating the Red army’s anniversary.
Ariston Remus, NPA-Southern Panay spokesperson said the people’s love and support enabled them to outlast massive military operations launched by the government.
“The masses continue to put their faith in armed struggle as the only effective solution to their poverty and with the NPA as their true defenders,” Remus said in Filipino.
“The masses are getting better in their underground activities to show their love and give their fathomless support to their army,” he added.
‘Lofty ideals’
Founded in Capas, Tarlac in 1969, NPA’s armed struggle is often regarded as the longest-running Communist Party-led armed revolution in the world.
It has been designated as a so-called terrorist organization by the Philippine, United States and other Western governments, an accusation the revolutionary groups vehemently rejects.
In September 2022, a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) rejected Manila government’s bid to have both the CPP and the NPA proscribed as terrorist organizations.
Manila RTC Branch Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar wrote that while both organizations may be regarded as rebels, they are not terrorists because violence is simply part of their means but not their end.
“A perusal of the foregoing Program consisting of lofty ideals readily shows that the CPP-NPA is organized or exists not for the purpose [of] engaging in terrorism,” Judge Magdoza-Malagar ruled. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
A federation of farm workers expressed fears that the establishment of more United States (US) military facilities in the country would give rise to more war, human rights violations and foreign economic plunder in the Philippines.
Following reports of aerial bombings in Hacienda Intal in Baggao, Cagayan last February 2, the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said it is alarmed that US troops would not only encourage “state terrorism”, they may even participate in military operations that inevitably affect farming communities.
“Bukod sa dinadawit tayo ng US sa mga gerang hindi atin at taliwas sa pambansang interes ng Pilipinas, gagamitin din ito ng mga imperyalista para sulsulan ang estado na lalong supilin, atakihin, at dahasin ang sarili nating mga kababayan,” UMA chairperson John Milton Lozande said.
(Aside from dragging us into wars that are not ours and are against Philippine national interest, the imperialists would use these military bases to persuade the government to suppress, attack, and commit violence against our people.)
Both already heavily-militarized, the northern Cagayan and Isabela provinces are among the sites where four new US military facilities would be built following a recent agreement made between US Defense Secretary John Lloyd Austin III and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the former’s recent official visit to the country.
Zambales and Palawan, both facing the West Philippine Sea, are the two other provinces.
Five US Joint Special Operations Task Forces groups are currently operating inside Armed Forces of the Philippine camps as part of Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines program, which would be increased to nine should the agreement push through.
Austin’s visit coincided with bombing operations conducted by the Tactical Operation Group 2 of the Philippine Air Force while the 501st Infantry Battallion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) conducted ground military operations at Sitio Birao, Barangay Hacienda Intal of Baggao last February 2.
The operations followed a gunfight between the 95th IBPA and communist fighters under the Henry Abraham Command of the New People’s Army.
Both sides reported no casualties in the incident.
Bombo Radyo-Tuguegarao reported that 149 families of 272 civilians were forced to evacuate due to the operations and bombings.
Meanwhile, Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba expressed his opposition to the establishment of foreign military facilities in his province.
He said in a radio interview that Cagayan Province does not need to be a site for new US military operations in the country.
‘Economic plunder’
Aside from threats posed by more soldiers in farming communities, UMA said increased US military presence also means that the foreign country wants to maintain its dominance on mining and plantation businesses in the Philippines.
Lozande said that through land monopoly, US corporations have long extracted raw materials from the Philippines for their industries, holding back the Philippines’ own industrialization.
“Lands that ought to be devoted to domestic food production…were held hostage by a plantation system equally beholden to corporate interests, churning out high-value crops in demand in the US-dominated world market rather than yielding food staples like rice,” Lozande added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Activist groups trooped to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday morning to press the Philippine government to remove its designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as a terrorist organization and to resume peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
On the occasion of the late NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison’s 84thbirth anniversary, about 40 national and regional organizations said it is time for the government to remove its “arbitrary and erroneous” terrorist designation of the CPP, NDFP and the New People’s Army.
“Instead of the practice of ‘terrorist designation’, the Philippine government should embark on serious peace negotiations to address the roots of the armed conflict. The Marcos regime is the first post-EDSA regime that has not undertaken peace negotiations with the NDFP,” the groups said in a statement.
In the absence of negotiations, the groups added that the basic civil and political rights of NDFP peace consultants, political prisoners and other individuals are violated through the actions of the government’s Anti-Terrorism Council.
Another peace consultant arrested
After the rally at the DOJ, however, human rights group Karapatan reported that NDFP peace consultant Ariel Badiang, was taken under custody by military men in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon last Monday, February 6.
The 64 years old Badiang could not be contacted by his family who have sought the public help in determining his whereabouts.
“If he is in the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we demand that they immediately surface Badiang, and that they respect his constitutional rights as well as rights under international humanitarian law,” Karapatan said.
In a forum before the rally, the groups said that the terrorist designation of NDFP peace negotiators such as Sison, former NDFP chief negotiatior Louis Jalandoni and peace consultants, activists and other individuals is a violation of their basic universal right to due process.
“We believe that the designation leads to even more human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. The indiscriminate terrorist designation of individuals, groups and movements, along with the persistent practice of red-tagging, has led to surveillance, extrajudicial killings, abductions and torture of activists, the groups said.
They cited NDFP negotiators who were “summarily executed”, such as poet Ericson Acosta, Menandro Villanueva, NPA spokesperson Jorge Madlos and others.
They also cited civilians killed who were earlier tagged by government forces as so-called terrorists, Chad Booc and companions as well as activists in Manila, Cebu, Kalinga, Central Luzon and Batangas who were abducted by state security forces because of allegations of “terrorist activities.”
“We attribute the brutal treatment of these persons, including the elderly and sick, to the terrorist-labeling done by State forces. From the above incidents, it now appears that the terrorist designation has given rise to a ‘Guantanamo mindset’ where a labeled person is no longer entitled to basic rights as a human being,” they said.
Unfair and dangerous
The groups said the terrorist designation of the revolutionary groups is unfair and dangerous as it is politicized, lacks transparency, admissible evidence, nor any objective standards as to what specific acts constitute “terrorism”.
“As such, the act of designating groups and individuals as terrorists has become arbitrary and subject to grave abuse. This has been so clearly exhibited in the terrorist designation of community doctor Natividad Castro who was unilaterally labeled a terrorist in a resolution that did not provide any credible, competent and admissible evidence nor specific acts that would support the claim of the ATC,’ they said.
Among the groups that signed the statement areBagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), GABRIELA National Alliance of Filipino Women, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY), League of Filipino Students (LFS), Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP),
Migrante Philippines, Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), Sandugo — Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination, Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR),
Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA), Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), AMIHAN National Federation of Peasant Women and many others.
The groups cited Manila RTC under Judge Marlo Malagar’s September 2022 decision in a previous case under the Human Security Act that pointed out that the CPP and NPA are not “terrorist” groups and that their resort to armed struggle is in furtherance of their political program which includes land reform and national industrialization.
They also pointed out that membership in the CPP is not illegal after the anti-subversion law had been repealed under the Fidel Ramos presidency.
Stumbling block to peace
In their statement, the groups asserted that the terrorist designation is a stumbling block to peace as it shuts the door to any meaningful peace negotiations and does away with the important agreements made in the course of the peace talks since 1992.
Important agreements signed by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
Before the Rodrigo Duterte government turned away from the negotiations in June 2017, the GRP and NDFP Panels have initialed drafts on important parts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms that include land reform, rural development and national industrialization.
“To start with, the almost universal legal principle on the nature and object of rebellion as a political act militate against designating its actors as ‘terrorists’,” the petitioners said.
“We call on the Philippine government to remove the terrorist designations and other stumbling blocks to peace and work to resume formal peace negotiations towards addressing the roots of the armed conflict, the groups said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Human rights group Karapatan condemned the harassment of its humanitarian mission in the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon Province where a firefight between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army had been raging since the weekend.
In a statement, Karapatan said its mission had been subjected to a series of threats and harassments by the 85th Infantry Battallion-Philippine Army (IBPA) in Catanauan and Mulanay towns on Monday.
The team is assisting families of alleged NPA members reported to have been killed in the town of San Francisco, the group explained.
Karapatan said its 16-member humanitarian mission travelled on Monday to San Francisco but was met with numerous combined military and police checkpoints along the way.
“Yesterday, Tuesday, the two vehicles of the mission were impounded in Catanauan town for alleged Land Transportation Office violations. State forces also interrogated drivers of vehicles of the mission teams, inquiring names of all the passengers,” Karapatan said.
Stranded, the humanitarian mission members were forced to spend the night in Catanauan as suspected military agents tailed them to the place where they stayed.
At around one in the morning of Tuesday, they were alerted when they heard that police elements were inquiring on their whereabouts, the group reported.
On Wednesday, the mission tried to resume travel but they were held again at a checkpoint near the Polytechnic University of the Philippines campus in Mulanay town.
“Meanwhile, the drivers who went to the LTO office in Catanauan, were confronted by the LTO chief and a police official and were reportedly forcing them to admit that their passengers were members of the NPA,” Karapatan said.
“They were likewise threatened that they will be charged with more violations and be permanently banned from travelling to Quezon,” the group added.
Violation of the rules of war
Karapatan’s allegations run counter to announcements made by the 85th IBPA who said they are giving three NPA casualties a decent wake at the old San Francisco municipal hall.
In a social media post, the army unit said it will only tender the remains to “true relatives of the deceased.”
The 85th IBPA also uploaded videos and photographs of its troopers giving medical aid to an alleged NPA fighter wounded in the firefight last Sunday.
But Karapatan said its mission’s and the families’ failure to reach San Francisco belies AFP’s propaganda of adherence to the rules of war.
“State forces and government agencies are in full connivance in violation of basic rights of persons to travel, for human rights groups to provide assistance, and worse, they are impeding assistance for the families of the dead,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.
“Barring the families, and not allowing a civilian humanitarian mission to assist them retrieve their dead, violate provisions in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL),” she explained.
The CARHRIHL, an agreement signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines cites the International Humanitarian Law governing the conduct of war, including allowing family members to retrieve the remains of those killed.
The mission and the relatives with them have yet to recover the bodies the victims.
Karapatan also called on the Commission on Human Rights to probe into possible human rights violations in the ongoing military operation.
Meanwhile, the local government of San Francisco has announced the suspension of classes in 11 barangays from Wednesday to the rest of the school week.
San Francisco Mayor Francisco Edano said the firefight is still ongoing, affecting eleven of their town’s barangays and prompting him to suspend classes. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Award winning poet and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Ericson Acosta was murdered by the military Wednesday morning in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, a rebel spokesperson announced.
NDF-Negros spokesperson Bayani Obrero said in a statement that Acosta and a companion were captured alive at around two o’clock in the morning of November 30 but were announced as casualties in a “fake encounter” a few hours later.
Obrero belied the announcement made by the 94th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Philippine Army (PA) that the bodies of two New People’s Army (NPA) members were “found” at the site of a second firefight between government troopers and the revolutionary group in Sitio Makilo, Barangay Camansi in the said city.
In an earlier announcement, the government unit said that they, along with the 47th IB-PA, fought against 10 NPA fighters twice in a span of 15 minutes that resulted in the discovery of two dead rebels, presumably Acosta and his unnamed companion.
The government troopers said the insurgents were earlier involved in a series of gunfights in Carabalan, Himamaylan City in October.
The NDF in Negros however said Acosta and companion were summarily executed as part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ “despicable policy of taking no prisoners in their counter-insurgency campaign.”
“Twisting truths cannot cover the fact that butchers 94th Infantry Battalion and 47th Infantry Battalion captured NDF Consultant Ericson Acosta and his companion, a peasant organizer, alive around 2:00 this morning,“ Obrero said.
Obrero said Acosta was in southern Negros to consult on the situation of farm workers as one of the NDFP peace consultants working on social and economic reforms.
Acosta attended the formal peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in 2017 in Italy and The Netherlands.
Acosta, first arrested in February 2011 in Samar Island, regained freedom two years later.
A highly-regarded writer, singer and actor, he later won a National Book Award for his first poetry collection “Mula Tarima Hanggang at iba pang mga Tula at Awit” published by the University of the Philippines Press in 2015.
He was a former culture editor of The Philippine Collegian.
He is survived by a son with fellow poet, actor and campus journalist Lorena Kerima Tariman who was similarly killed in what the military described as an “encounter” in Silay City, Negros Occidental in October 2021. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The New People’s Army (NPA) in Bicol reports successful ambuscades in Albay province this month, countering Philippine Army claims of demoralization in the ranks of communist guerrillas in the region.
The NPA said its Santos Binamera Command in Albay killed seven soldiers of the Philippine Army’s (PA) 49th Infantry Battalion in a clash in the town of Jovellar last October 3 while suffering no casualty of their own.
This followed a series of offensive military operations in the province that resulted in the death of nine more government troopers since September, the NPA claimed.
Raymundo Buenfuerza, NPA Bicol spokesperson, said their recent successes in Albay is a slap on both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) that claim counter-insurgency programs have weakened the rebel army in the region.
“[The] Red army still is, and will remain, unfaltering,” Buenfuerza said in a statement.
The rebel spokesperson said their recent victories continue to defeat “massive and intensive” government military operations in Albay.
“Not less than 11 combat companies of AFP-PNP are deployed while 20 CAFGU detachments are in the area. The Philippine Air Force’s Tactical Operations Group 5, Philippine Navy’s 4th Naval Station and Naval Task Force 41 – NAVFORSOL as well as PNP Region V’s central commands also have their bases in Albay,” the NPA-Romulo Jallores Command spokesperson said.
“Despite this, the Red army is exemplary in continuously reaping victories in the field,” Buenfuerza said.
The PA has not made statements on the latest NPA claims of recent successful ambuscades.
Instead, the PA’s 9th Infantry Division announced that seven NPA members surrendered in Masbate province last October 16 while one of its units have killed a rebel fighter in a clash in Barangay Liong, Cataingan town last October 8.
Second Infantry Battalion commander Lt. Col. Orlando Ramos Jr. identified the slain alleged NPA fighter as Lito Villaces Ajena, alias Cesar.
Buenfuerza said the NPA in Bicol are set to launch more and bigger military offensives in the region in the future.
“The NPA cannot be stopped and will never be defeated. It will continue to advance until the people’s democratic revolution’s complete victory,” Buenfuerza said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The spokesperson of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Negros Island had been killed by government troopers Monday afternoon, the communist guerrilla’s regional command confirmed.
Juanito Magbanua, spokesperson of the NPA’s Apolinario Gatmaitan Command (AGC), was killed by Philippine Army’s 94th Infantry Battalion (IB) troopers in Sitio Medel, Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City at around 5:45 in the afternoon, the group announced.
The NPA however said Magbanua (born Romeo V. Nanta) was summarily-killed as there was no clash in the area and only four shots were fired that ended the ailing rebel spokesperson’s life.
The AGC said Magbanua was suffering from hypertension and arthritis and chose to stay at Sitio Medel to closely monitor the mass evacuation of civilians as well as the NPA’s manoeuvres during the ongoing military operations in the area.
[WHAT WENT BEFORE] Philippine Army orders mass evacuation in Himamaylan City
The 303rd Infantry Brigade ordered the evacuation of thousands of civilians last weekend following a clash with the NPA’s Mt. Cansermon Command that killed two government soldiers and injured six others.
The NPA said Magbanua was captured and should have been accorded hors de combat (unable to fight) status.
B/Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, claimed that Magbanua was killed during a 10-minute clash between the 94th IB and 10 NPA fighters.
Magbanua’s remains was brought to Himamaylan City proper where he was identified.
The NPA said it mourns Magbanua’s death and vowed to exact justice for his “cold-blooded murder.”
“This is a day of mourning for all comrades, revolutionary forces, friends and family and especially the exploited and oppressed masses, not only in Negros but the whole country,” the NPA said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
More than 15,000 residents of Barangays Carabalan and Cabadiangan of Himamaylan City have reportedly sought refuge in evacuation centers this morning following the imposition of a week-long lockdown by government forces starting last weekend.
The 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army (PA) ordered civilians to either vacate their homes or stay indoors as pursuit operations are being conducted against New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
The evacuations were ordered after the 94th Infantry Brigade of the PA clashed with a unit of the NPA’s Mt. Cansermon Command last Thursday, September 6, at Sitio Sig-ang, Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan.
Those ordered to evacuate are residents of Sitios Palayan, Tongo and Guia of Barangay Cabadiangan as well as several sitios of Barangay Biao.
Earlier, the NPA said government troops bombed sitio Double Yarding of Barangay Mahalang last October 7 that lasted 20 minutes.
Sitios Cunalom, Casipungan, Cambulan, Pangi and Igaw of Barangay Carabalan were also bombed by the Philippine Army, the rebels said, adding government troops also destroyed houses and slaughtered farm animals.
Philippine Army justifies evacuations
Meanwhile, PA’s 94th IB announced on its Facebook page that two of its soldiers died while six others were injured in Thursday’s fire fight .
The Region 6 Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF6-ELCAC) has justified the military’s evacuation orders but admitting to only 290 families or 1190 individuals evacuated in seven refugee centers in the city.
“The evacuation of these families is necessary so that they will not be use(d)…as human shields or as hostages to deter the pursuing army troopers,” RTF6-ELCAC spokesperson Flosemer Chris Gonzales said.
Gonzales also criticized local social media news outlets and “some ill-informed media outfits” for so-called “heavily slanted and heavily-biased news articles” of the October 6 clash.
‘Rights violations after defeat’
The NPA’s Apolinario Gatmaitan Command said the PA’s evacuation order on civilians is the result of its frustration over its October 6 defeat.
Juanito Magbanua, the Negros Island Regional NPA spokesperson added that the PA is also extending their pursuit operations to increase its expenses that “give way to their corruption and at the expense of “terrorized” civilians.
The National Democratic Front in Negros meanwhile called on the local government of Himamaylan City to protect its constituents.
“The local government unit (LGU) of Himamaylan City should not just standby and allow these attacks against its constituents. The LGU should assert civilian supremacy and demand an end to the militarization of Himamaylan City,” NDF-Negros spokesperson Bayani Obrero said in a separate statement.
Obrero also stressed “utmost urgency to demand respect for human rights and observance of international humanitarian law,” in the face of military-imposed forced evacuations, bombings, threats of airstrikes and militarization of Negros Island. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)