Political prisoner support group appeals for martial law survivor’s humanitarian release
Political prisoner support group Kapatid appealed for humanitarian release and immediate return to Manila of martial law survivor Adora Faye de Vera, suggesting that her brother, Cabinet member Prospero de Vera III, may act as her guarantor.
Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim said the government may put Adora could be put under the legal custody of younger sibling Prospero, Commission on Higher Education chairperson, as he is appropriate for the role.
“The very reasons that Prof. de Vera announced to distance himself from his sister could ironically provide the same rationale why he fits the bill as a guarantor…Who better [to act as] guarantor than a brother who has red-tagged his sister to prove in his own words that he neither ‘shares her views nor supports her actions’ and ‘fully supports the government in its efforts to end the communist insurgency’?” Lim said.
In a statement following his sister’s arrest last Wednesday, August 24, Prospero said he has not spoken to his sister for more than 25 years “since she decided to rejoin the underground movement.”
Prospero added that while he hopes and prays for Adora’s safety and good health in detention as she faces the cases filed against her, he fully supports the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in its efforts to end the communist insurgency.
‘Very sick’
Adora’s son also Ron’s called for his mother’s release and return to Manila to continue with her medical treatment.
“My mother is 66 now and very sick that’s why she was in Manila to seek medical care. We appeal to government authorities to immediately bring her back to Manila to ensure her safety while she undergoes medical treatment for chronic asthma and complications,” Ron, former program coordinator of Amnesty International Philippines, said.
Ron said their family is very worried for Adora’s safety following “tokhang-style” killings of prominent activists, mostly elderly and very ill, who were tagged by military-police forces as leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.
Among them are National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultants Antonio Cabanatan, 74, and his wife Florenda Yap, 65, who were abducted, tortured, and murdered by police-military units also in Iloilo on December 26, 2020.
“Iloilo is not a safe place for Mama and it’s very far away from us. She has been through so much suffering. We appeal to government authorities to give her a chance to live a peaceful life and receive the proper medical care she needs. Please release her on humanitarian grounds and allow us to take care of her,” said Ron, whose father and Adora’s first husband, Manuel “Noni” Manaog, a community organizer, was abducted in 1990 and remains missing.
Adora was twice arrested during the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. dictatorship who revealed torture and rape in the hands of her captors.
She was among thousands of petitioners who successfully prosecuted the late dictator in a Hawaii court for human rights violations during martial law.
Kapatid’s Lim said Adora’s imprisonment reopens festering wounds that presents a tremendous challenge to new President Marcos Jr. “to show he is not incapable of righting the wrongs of the past and that his mantra of unity during the elections is not a hollow message to sidestep his family’s brutal and corrupt history.” # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/popoy.jpg6781038Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2022-08-28 11:45:192022-08-28 11:45:20KAPATID: ‘Red-tagging CHED chair may take custody of elder sister Adora’
‘Please standby for new accounts,’ regional NPA spokesperson announces
Social media platform Twitter has “permanently suspended” accounts connected with personalities and groups of the underground Left in the Philippines, a regional New People’s Army (NPA) spokesperson announced.
Apolinario Gatmaitan Command (AGC)-NPA Negros spokesperson Juanito Magbanua told journalists that Twitter has removed the account of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesperson Marco Valbuena along with the AGC and the National Democratic Front-Negros on Monday, August 1.
Valbuena’s Twitter account is the last known social media platform openly connected with the CPP spokesperson.
Other known CPP, NPA and NDF accounts, including that of CPP founder and NDF-Philippines chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison have earlier been banned by other social networking services such as Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook said that the decision came after the underground groups have violated its community standards on propagating violence.
Valbuena last June said the suspensions were “part of heightened efforts to silence anti-imperialist voices on social media on the pretext of the sham US ‘war against terror’.”
Last June, Twitter accounts @prwc_info, @cpp_angbayan and @sineproletaryo have been suspended along with Sison’s, a move that Valbuena said came “without warning or advice.”
Magbanua said he disagrees with the latest suspension of their other social media accounts as well.
“We see this as another round of attacks against the Philippine revolutionary movement that exposes the truth of what is happening especially in the countryside and calls out the ruling class for the worsening oppression and exploitation of the Filipino people,” Magbanua told reporters.
He said that the “attacks” would not deter them from continuing their revolution.
“The people’s democratic revolution goes on. We will continue to fight back in all fields of battle,” Gatmaitan said.
“Please standby for new accounts,” he added.
Magbanua has since told reporters the creation of a new Twitter account by 2:28 PM. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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Groups reveal continuing rights violations under new Marcos government
A Lumad volunteer teacher was arrested by the police in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur last Sunday while a farmer-couple were taken by government soldiers in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental last Friday, various groups reported.
In an alert, human rights group Karapatan-Caraga said Gary S. Campos was arrested by police officers while on his way to a review center at about one o’clock in the afternoon and was taken by his arresters all the way to Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.
Succeeding to contact friends only at about eight o’clock that evening, Campos told them he was presented with a warrant of arrest by the police but was unable to disclose the nature of the charges, Karapatan said.
Campos is preparing to take the professional licensure examination for teachers and is currently a volunteer teacher at a local Department of Education school.
A Lumad Manobo, Campos was an alumnus of both the Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) and Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV), Lumad schools that have been the victim of military and paramilitary occupation, arson, harassment, closure and killing of its officials and other volunteer teachers throughout the Rodrigo Duterte administration.
Upon graduation, he volunteered as a TRIFPSS teacher.
When the government and the military closed down the Lumad schools, Campos went back to college and graduated with an education degree from St. Theresa’s College-Tandag as a scholar of the Indigenous People’s Apostolate of the Catholic Diocese of Tandag.
Farmer-couple missing
Meanwhile, a farmer-couple were taken from their home in Himamaylan City by government soldiers in the dead of night last July 15, the underground New People’s Army (NPA) announced on social media.
Geral Ganti and partner Dalen Alipo-on, both members of the local Mahalang Farmers’ Association were taken by troopers of the 94th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) from their home at 11:30 at the evening and have not been seen since, Mt. Cansermon Command-NPA spokesperson Dionesio Magbuelas said.
Magbuelas said that about 20 soldiers arrived in the community, forced the couple from their house and were later taken away on board motor vehicles.
Relatives of the couple have reportedly informed the police of the incident but have not been informed of their whereabouts in the last four days since the abduction.
The couple have two young children, the NPA said.
Magbuelas added that the couple have been repeated victims of red-tagging by the military and have also been told to submit themselves to authorities as so-called NPA surrenderees.
94th IBPA’s Facebook page has no post related to the allegation.
The NPA challenged local government officials in Negros Island to look into reports of human rights violations in their areas. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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(UPDATED) A former radio reporter was among the four guerilla fighters killed in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental last July 6 in what the New People’s Army (NPA) said was a massacre, contrary to what the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed was an encounter.
The NPA’s Apolinario Gatmaitan Command (NPA-AGC), its Negros Island Regional Operational Command, said that Nikka Dela Cruz and her three comrades were earlier captured by government troops but were subsequently “slaughtered.”
The four were ailing and their medical condition rendered them incapable to fight, NPA-AGC spokesperson Juanito Magbanua said in a July 8 statement.
“[F]ascist troops…slaughtered four ailing Red fighters in cold blood at Barangay Biao, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental and shamelessly paraded their bodies as casualties of the fake encounter concocted by the AFP’s top commanders as a cover-up for their war crime,” Magbanua said.
“It was a massacre,” he added.
The 94th Infantry Battallion of the Philippine Army said the four were part of a 14-member NPA team who died in a clash with soldiers and police officers at about nine o’clock in the morning in Sitio Amilis, Barangay Santol, Binalbagan.
Lt. Col. Van Donald Almonte, commander of the 94th Infantry Battalion (94IB), said the fatalities belonged to the NPA’s Central Negros 2, Komiteng Rehiyong-Negros Cebu Bohol Siquijor.
Aside from Dela Cruz, also identified as Ka (Comrade) Chai, the NPA said the three other victims were Roel “Ka Jack”Ladera, Alden “Ka Rocky” Rodriguez and Roel “Ka Caloy” Deguit.
Nikka “Ka Chai” Dela Cruz. (Supplied photo)
‘Final militant red salute’
The NPA-AGC said their four fallen comrades were martyrs of the revolution who “surmounted all sacrifices and difficulties to arouse, organize and mobilize the people in the revolution and to fight for their interests and aspirations.”
The four came from different social backgrounds, Magbanua said.
Magbanua revealed that Dela Cruz, 26, was a former reporter of GMA Network’s Cebu City radio station dySS after graduating from the Catholic University of San Jose-Recoletos in the said city with a journalism degree.
A native of Medellin town in Cebu Province, Dela Cruz was the youngest among three siblings of a well-off middle class family whose mother is a medical doctor.
As a student, Dela Cruz was reportedly already active in the struggles of Cebu City’s urban poor, vendors and other people’s advocacies.
“She played a crucial role in the struggle of Carbon Market vendors against the privatization program of the Cebu City local government. After being hunted by [government] intelligence agencies, she went incognito and focused in revolutionary underground work among students and intellectual youths in 2017,” Magbanua said.
Dela Cruz became one of the leaders of her Communist Party of the Philippines unit who went to Negros to gain exposure to the Communists’ people’s war and decided to serve as a full time NPA fighter, Magbanua added.
Ladera, 30, was a NPA squad leader at the time of their death, Magbanua said.
He was a native of Himamaylan City and first experienced brutality in the hands of the military who they were assaulted after winning a basketball game against soldiers, Magbanua said.
The NPA spokesperson added Ladera was active in the anti-mining campaign in Negros before joining the guerilla army in 2016.
Like Ladera, Rodriguez also suffered maltreatment from abusive local officials before enlisting in 2019. The native of Manjuyod, Negros Occidental also hailed from peasant family, the NPA said.
The oldest among the four victims, Deguit was also a victim of trumped-up charges by government prosecutors before joining the NPA. He was also from Himamaylan, Magbanua said.
“Their untimely demise in the hands of the fascists will only arouse more Negrosanons to the revolution as the AFP is further exposed as a terrorist cabal and protector of the ruling class,” he added.
Not over
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) announced the death of a police officer in an encounter with suspected members of the NPA in Samar province on Saturday morning, July 16.
Patrolman Mark Monge of the Eastern Visayas Regional Mobile Force Battalion in a clash with the NPA in the boundary of Barangay San Nicolas of San Jose de Buan town and Barangay Mabuhay of Gandara town in the said province.
PNP officer-in-charge Police Lieutenant General Vicente Danao Jr. on Monday condemned the incident, saying he wants to curse the rebels and wishes to ambush them himself.
Danao cautioned police officers to be extra careful when conducting operations in the field.
Seven soldiers were also wounded in a clash with the NPA in nearby Mapanas town in neighboring Northern Samar province last July 5 while three alleged NPA fighters were killed in another encounter last July 13, the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army reported.
Both the AFP and the PNP repeatedly vowed that the NPA would have been decimated by this month as the Manila government transitions from former President Rodrigo Duterte to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The clashes, however, reveal that the NPA and its 53-year old insurgency remain strong in various parts of the country. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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Antique governor and current senatorial candidate Loren Legarda called for the resumption of the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The former three-time senator said just and lasting peace is important as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Legarda added that ending poverty and pursuing socio-economic programs will benefit Filipinos and help the Philippines realize national recovery and development.
Legarda in a statement on Thursday said that the prospective Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) that is being discussed before formal negotiations stopped in 2017 contains “concrete and doable steps towards liberating the Filipino people from poverty, exploitation, and underdevelopment.”
The GRP Negotiating Panel has submitted its own draft to its counterpart which the late NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said was “surprisingly similar in many respects” to their own.
Both parties have agreed to use the NDFP version as the working draft and have already agreed to free land distribution during the third round of formal negotiations in Rome, Italy in January 2017.
GRP President Rodrigo Duterte has declared an end to the peace negotiations in June 2017, however.
Optomistic for talks resumption
Legarda said she is optimistic that both parties will hear her call.
“As an official who has maintained good working relations with the NDFP over the years, I have seen the sincerity of all sides to pursue a common objective and have witnessed their intense desire for peace and social justice. Resuming the peace talks and continuing the discussions on the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER), the very heart and soul of the peace negotiations, will help us find a common ground to help achieve our goal,” she added.
Legarda explained that NDFP’s proposed CASER contains provisions on various socio-economic concerns such as agrarian reform and rural development, national industrialization and economic development as well as environmental protection, rehabilitation and compensation.
The NDFP’s draft also contains proposals on the rights of the working people; promoting patriotic, progressive, and pro-people culture; recognition of ancestral lands and territories of national minorities; and ensuring economic sovereignty for national development through foreign economic and trade relations, financial, monetary and fiscal policies, and social and economic planning, she added.
Legarda said that, as chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, she ensured that the national budget supported socio-economic reform agenda and authored laws on environmental protection that are part of the proposed CASER.
She also mentioned that she helped facilitate the safe releases of prisoners of war by the New People’s Army, including General Victor Obillo, Captain Eduardo Montealto, Sergeant Alpio Lozada, Major Roberto Bernal, and Army Major Noel Buan.
“We have the same goal of addressing issues affecting Filipinos such as poverty, landlessness, lack of employment and livelihood opportunities, underemployment, lack of access to housing services, affordable health care, education and other social services, corruption, environmental degradation, among many others,” the senatorial aspirant pointed out.
“We may have different views on how to pursue national development, but I believe we can find a common ground. Stalling the negotiations can only lead to delayed pandemic recovery and continued suffering for millions of Filipinos who were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Legarda said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/loren.jpg605921Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2022-04-27 13:14:392022-04-27 13:15:02Legarda calls for the resumption of GRP-NDFP talks
Church and family say Aldeem Yañez is an exemplary church worker and Christian activist, not a terrorist
A church group as well as the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) denounced the arrest of church and development worker Aldeem Yañez at three o’clock in the morning of April 10, Palm Sunday, saying the charges against him are “blatant fabrication.”
The Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) said it denounces the early morning raid that is part of an “established pattern by state forces to conduct search or arrest operations in the dead of night.”
“Blatant fabrication of evidence and pro forma testimonies by arresting officers are an affront to truth and common decency,” the PCPR added.
Supreme Bishop Rhee Timbang himself spoke in behalf of the IFI in demanding Yañez’s release, saying the arrest was illegal and the charge of illegal possession of firearms against him are trumped up.
“We demand for the release of Aldeem Yañez and for the dropping of all trumped-up charges against him. We oppose illegal arrest and detention, and call for the stop of red-tagging! We shout to stop church persecution! We call for the resumption of peace talks!” Bishop Timbang said in a statement.
An activist and a repeated victim of red-tagging, Yañez is accused by the police and military to be a member of the New People’s Army.
Sunday’s arrest last Sunday is Yañez’s second. He was among 13 church workers arrested in General Santos City in July 2018.
Bishop Timbang however denied police and military allegations their church worker is a member of the NPA, adding Yañez is an IFI member in good standing.
He said Yañez is “active and committed in his participation to the life and work of the Church as being a consistent church youth leader in the parish, diocesan, regional [Mindanao], and national level.”
The prelate said Yañez was at one time the National Youth President of the IFI.
“As expression of his ministry, he served as volunteer staff of Visayas-Mindanao Regional Office for Development, a development program of the IFI, and of Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform [PEPP], a network of peace advocates in the country, seeking for the resumption of peace talks between the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) to resolve basic social problems in our land,” Bishop Timbang added.
“We in the IFI leadership decry this grave abuse of police and military power and the cooptation of the civil courts. We root this in the tyrannical rule of the present dispensation which has no regard and respect of the law, human rights, social justice and human dignity,” he said.
Bishop Timbang said Yañez is a musician and songwriter of many church songs used popularly within and outside the IFI.
Family of church workers
Yañez is a brother to an IFI Bishop and a Priest.
In an appeal, Fr. June Mark Yañez said his brother could not have kept guns inside their Cagayan de Oro home where Aldeem was taking care of their elderly parents.
“Who in their right minds would be keeping firearms and explosives in such a situation? Besides, Aldeem has no record of being a gun smuggler or drug dealer that would force him to keep such weapons where his beloved parents are,” Fr. Yañez asked.
The Priest said their brother is an exemplary servant of the Church and the Filipino people.
“He may not have become a priest like me or a bishop like our other brother, but we could not compare to his dedication to serve the Church. The guitar is his favorite instrument in spreading the good news. It is also his weapon of resistance as an activist, not guns and bullets that were planted as evidence against him by the shameless and desperate state agents who arrested him,” Fr. Yañez said.
Bishop Redeemer Yañez for his part said their brother Aldeem is an activist “if the word is to be defined as a person who sees the misery of his people, who hears the cry of the poor, who is concerned about their sufferings, and journey with them in the path of emancipation.”
Bishop Yañez said that their brother’s concern for the poor is rooted on his deep faith that was nurtured by their family, his nationalist church, and by his long involvement in the ecumenical and developmental works.
Aside from being a former national youth president of the IFI, Aldeem was also a former vice chairperson of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.
“He is a Christian activist. He is not a terrorist,” Bishop Yañez said.
Their mother Kathleen said she was hard-broken to see her youngest son in handcuffs and sleeping on the cold concrete floor of Camp Evangelsta in Patag, Cagayan de Oro City.
But she added that her spirit is lifted with the outpouring of support of the IFI and the many organizations and individuals who know the real Aldeem.
“I am happy to know there are so many who love my most kind son. This child of mine is spending his whole life serving the church and the poor. The only time he is away is the time he is with the poorest who are driven away from their homes and are victims of injustices,” she said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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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)
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Vice President Leni Robredo is committed to resume formal peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) if she wins in the May polls, according to her spokesperson Atty. Barry Gutierrez.
Representing Robredo in the third episode of the Peace and Presidentiables webinar series organized by the Citizen’s Alliance for Just Peace (CAJP), Gutierrez assured that a Robredo administration would call for the resumption of the NDFP with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
A Robredo presidency would avoid militaristic and top-down strategies in favor of enabling marginalized sectors to have a role in governance and decision-making processes, including peace negotiations, Gutierrez added.
Robredo would re-engage communities and basic sectors to create a more conducive environment for peaceful negotiations, he said.
Gutierrez outlined five principles in the pursuit of this goal: the rejection of a purely militaristic approach; strong participation of communities and local stakeholders in the peace process; the primacy of protecting civilians from violence; a peace framework that is in line with national socioeconomic goals and social justice; and, the strategic role of international community, including longstanding partners such as the Royal Norwegian Government.
Reaffirmation of previous agreements
Robredo’s spokesperson also promised that she would uphold the milestone documents previously signed by the GRP and the NDFP.
These agreements include The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
On the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER), which was jointly drafted and was ready for approval in 2017, Gutierrez said that economic and social reforms should be fundamental to the peace process.
Robredo on the NTF-ELCAC
Gutierrez also clarified Robredo’s stance on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), saying the Vice President believes that the original intention behind the agency was sound but the implementation of its mandate was marred by abuses.
If the NTF-ELCAC were to be abolished, it would have to be replaced by a body that would pursue the “whole-of-nation approach” while upholding democratic principles, he said.
Gutierrez also explained that Robredo’s support for the “whole-of-nation approach” was not an endorsement of the NTF-ELCAC’s abuses, but an espousal of the idea that the insurgency has to be solved by including all aspects of national governance to address the root causes of the insurgency.
Robredo vowed to put an end to acts of harassment by the NTF-ELCAC, such as in the form of red-tagging, Gutierrez assured, the Vice President being a victim of red-tagging by officials of the NTF-ELCAC herself.
Robredo is also open to revisiting controversial provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
According to Gutierrez, Robredo will also be amenable to a reassessment of the terrorist designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as so-called terrorist organizations.
Robredo shall also initiate a review of the cases of political prisoners, including jailed NDFP peace consultants, to facilitate their release.
More presidentiables for talks
Earlier, Robredo’s rival for the presidency, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, also said he is amenable to a review of the CPP, NPA and NDFP’s designation as so-called terrorist organizations as part of the creation of an atmosphere for the resumption of formal peace negotiations.
“Basta ako, yung peace talks, we must seek for it as much as possible. Not only the Communist Party but those other,” Moreno, during a campaign sortie in Lucena last Monday, said.
(For me, we must seek peace talks as much as possible. Not only with the CPP, but with other armed groups.)
Moreno served as NDFP Negotiating Panel resource person during talks between the Rodrigo Duterte GRP and the NDFP in 2016 and 2017.
Senator Manny Pacquaio and labor leader Leody de Guzman also said they will resume formal peace negotiations with the NDFP in the first two episodes of CAJP’s forum.
The Peace and the Presidentiable forum is organized in cooperation with the Lasallian Justice and Peace Commission of the De La Salle schools; Father Saturnino Urios University; Silliman University Student Council; St. Scholastica’s College, Manila; and, the University of the Philippines.
More NDFP consultant disappeared
Meanwhile, human rights group Karapatan sounded an alarm over the disappearance of NDFP peace consultants Ezequiel Daguman and Edwin Alcid.
Karapatan image
Karapatan said 50-year-old Daguman and a companion have been missing since the afternoon of March 7 while they were on their way to a peasant community in one of the banana plantations in New Corella, Davao del Norte to look into the situation of workers and farmers in the area.
Alcid and two farmers were also reportedly accosted by military personnel last March 8 in Catubig, Northern Samar, the group reported.
Both consultants and their respective companions have not been located yet by their relatives, Karapatan added.
“We call on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to help the families of Daguman, Alcid and their companions to search military camps, police stations and safe houses to ensure that they are alive and are accorded their rights,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.
Daguman and Alcid make three the number of consultants to have been reported abducted since the start of the year.
Esteban Manuel was abducted last February 16 in Villareal, Samar and was kept incommunicado until the CHR found out he is being imprisoned at the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division camp in Calbayog City.
Like fellow NDFP peace consultants arrested, Manuel and his companions are accused of illegal possession of firearms and explosives that are the Duterte government’s standard charges against activists and dissenters.
Karapatan image
NDFP consultant Ramon Patriarca, already a former political prisoner, was arrested in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental last March 18, along with youth activists CJ Matarlo and John Michael Tecson were.
Karapatan has no details of the charges against Patriarca and companions.
“We assert the calls to surface Edwin Alcid and Ezequiel Daguman and to free Esteban Manuel Jr. and Ramon Patriarca now! These attacks on peace consultants and advocates must stop! We strongly urge the Philippine government and the NDFP to resume the peace talks as soon as possible for the sake of our people,” Palabay demanded.
Palabay reminded the government that peace consultants are covered by the (JASIG) that states peace consultants and peace panel members should be immune from arrests, detention, and harassment.
Despite the suspension of formal peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP, JASIG has not been formally terminated by both parties, she said.
Palabay said that the recent string of abductions and arrests of NDFP peace consultants “signal intensified attacks — and of worst things to come, especially with the Duterte administration’s self-imposed deadline to wipe out the NDFP. We can only expect the arrests, abductions, and even killings of peace consultants and advocates.”
“Our people deserve genuine peace. These attacks not only spoil efforts to advance just peace but instead perpetuates militarism, violence, and injustice. As we assert our calls to surface Edwin Alcid and Ezequiel Daguman and to free Esteban Manuel Jr. and Ramon Patriarca, we also call for the immediate resumption of the peace talks and to stop the attacks on peace consultants,” Palabay said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/leni.jpg9121280Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2022-03-24 11:03:332022-03-24 11:03:35Robredo commits to peace talks resumption
The Romulo Jallores Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the Bicol Region said the government’s increased military presence in civilian communities is proof of their strength, contrary to government’s claims that the Communist guerrilla army is weakening.
In an audio statement 12 days before their 53rd founding anniversary, NPA-Bicol spokesperson Raymund Buenferza said the ruling class is in fact showing fear by flooding communities with government troops as the Communists continue their revolutionary work among the masses.
“They are being eaten by their desperation to crush the gains of the revolutionary movement, both by the earlier and our current generation of NPAs,” Buenfuerza said.
The regional NPA spokesperson said the government has launched costly, prolonged and widespread military operations to force the guerrillas into sustained combat to try to decimate their ranks in the region.
Buenfuerza however urged their Bicolano comrades to keep on resisting and remain faithful to their cause for meaningful change.
“Whatever it is that the government is making us suffer—if your areas are militarized, your work is being disrupted, the mass bases are being attacked—remember that these are because we are faithful to our struggle for the interests of the masses,” he said.
‘The military had last say on talks’
Buenfuerza’s remarks came as President Rodrigo Duterte again mocked the NPA in an address before alleged guerrilla surrenderees in Leyte Province on Thursday, March 17.
In his speech, Duterte said the NPA’s 53 year war is going nowhere.
“[T]ell those crazy people, those who are still fighting the government…Tell them that Mayor (Duterte) is urging you to surrender because I might return before I step down. If there are others who will surrender — if possible all your remaining comrades, come down here now because I can still help you,” he said.
Duterte also said he is instructing the military and police to allow the NPA members who wish to surrender to do so peacefully.
He also again promised to award surrenderees houses and livelihood, even cars.
Duterte said he allowed the resumption of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines early in his term, but was eventually prevailed upon by the military to withdraw.
“The military did not like it; I asked them to give me a chance to (talk peace). They said, ‘Sir, this is likely to result in a coalition government (with the Communists),’” Duterte said.
No giving up
Buenfuerza said the masses’ abject economic conditions encourage them to join their revolution however.
A vast rank of the people is being forced to choose between the two opposing sides of revolution and reaction, the NPA spokesperson said.
“The intensification of the government’s attacks gives way to the deepening politicization of our entire people,” he said.
“The enemy is welcome to delude themselves they are at the eve of their victory while we strengthen ourselves as we grab at the opportunity to move forward,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1.jpg422750Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2022-03-18 13:01:232022-03-18 13:27:24Bicol NPA: ‘Gov’t attacks us because they fear our strength’
Senatorial candidate and labor leader Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog urged Senator Panfilo Lacson to withdraw from the presidential race if he persists on red-tagging rivals and other political groups.
In a tweet, Labog said the national elections seek to choose an inclusive president, including activists like him.
“Senator @iampinglacson, mag-withdraw ka na lang. Hindi ito eleksyon para sa Pambansang Marites,” Labog wrote. (You better withdraw. This is not an election to look for a National Gossipmonger.)
Labog added they can not endorse Lacson’s candidacy.
“Ayaw mo sa amin, mas ayaw namin sa iyo,” the Kilusang Mayo Uno chairperson said. (You don’t like us, we don’t like you more.)
(From Labog’s FB page)
Labog was reacting to Lacson’s allegations that communists have infiltrated Vice President Leni Robredo’s campaign for the presidency, urging his rival “to take appropriate actions” against it.
Activists, many of whom are supporting Robredo’s candidacy, have called Lacson’s statement as red-tagging.
The Makabayan bloc that is fielding Labog and Bayan Muna president Neri Colmenares in the race for the Senate are endorsing Robredo.
‘Lies’
Meanwhile, Robredo denied allegations that she is forming a so-called coalition government with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
“To be clear: This is a lie,” Robredo said.
The Vice President said her candidacy is open to everyone who is ready to work to improve the lives of Filipinos.
(From VP Robredo’s FB page.)
Robredo said the disinformation and (black) propaganda are targeting members of the uniformed services who are supporting her.
“You want to derail the People’s Campaign’s momentum? Try harder. Better yet, why not join us instead?” Robredo said.
‘No chance of winning’
The CPP for its part slammed Lacson, saying he is merely serving the “tyrant” Rodrigo Duterte’s scenario-building to justify the possibility of imposing martial law as a last resort option to secure power.
“The presidential candidate Lacson, who surely is aware that he has no chances of winning, is using his campaign as platform to serve as Duterte’s attack dog against the Robredo camp,” the CPP said in a statement.
The group said Lacson, a former police general and alleged martial law torturer under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, is a veteran of red-tagging against activists and oppositionists.
The former fugitive was also reported to be behind the Rizal Day bombing of 2000 to derail the mounting protests against the then Joseph Estrada regime, the CPP added.
“For the record, neither the CPP nor the NDFP has forged any agreement with any of the political parties running in the May 2022 elections. Neither are the CPP or NDFP concerned with discussing a ‘coalition government’ at this time,” the CPP said.
“The NDFP, together with various peace advocates, have only publicly expressed hopes that the people will support a candidate that will resume peace negotiations with the NDFP in order to discuss the socioeconomic and political roots of the current civil war,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
