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Post by dodger on Aug 22, 2013 20:58:44 GMT
NPA disowns rebel surrenderees
Friday, August 23, 2013
TACLOBAN CITY - The New People’s Army (NPA) based in Northern Samar disowned the series of “NPA surrenderees” presented by the military and branded them as “impostors” taking advantage of the government’s financial offer.
Ka Amado Pesante, spokesperson of the Rodante Urtal Command of the NPA, said the 53 surrenderees in Northern Samar were peasants and allegedly forcibly recruited and recognized by the military in order to “assemble” the illusion that the military is winning the war.
The NPA said the surrenderees became a ‘bounty-hunting’ scheme for certain local government unit (LGU) and military officials and allegedly pushing some civilians, who are in survival mode, to present themselves as rebel returnees complete with stories allegedly invented by military.
To recall, the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army told reporters that the military in the region scored against members of the NPA members operating in the mountainous part of the region.
The arrest included NPA insurgents, five of whom held key positions in the NPA hierarchy in Eastern Visayas, recovered high powered firearms and low powered firearms, neutralization of NPA insurgents during encounters, surrender and neutralization of organized mass members and the discovery and seizure of 77 NPA camps.
The Leyte Samar Daily Express learned that all “NPA surrenderees” reportedly signed up for the Social Integration Program (SIP), which aims to entice rebels to abandon their armed struggle.
The SIP, which was launched in June 2008 under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp), assists rebels who want to integrate into society with financial assistance, legal and health benefits, and livelihood training.
The rebels were offered P20,000-worth of cash incentives for surrendering and for the firearms they will turn over amounting to P200,000 for light machine gun; Colt M16 rifle (P50,000); M14 (P60,000); and for M203 grenade launcher (P40,000).
The NPA said the military strategy of a supposed surrender was another of military’s system of accepting bogus NPA rebels in hopes of sowing demoralization within the ranks of genuine members of the NPA.
Pesante said the rest of the surrendered firearms were M-1 Grand rifle and World War II vintage rifles and most of the firearms appear to be no longer serviceable if not heavily damaged.
In an interview with Captain Amado Gutierrez, spokesperson of the 8th ID based in Catbalogan City, he belied the contention of Pesante, saying that all the presented surrenderees were real members of the NPA.
Gutierrez said the rebels, who voluntarily surrendered, undergo a process of scrutiny and are properly check by the board as to their real identity before they would be accepted under the SIP of the government.
“All was properly documented and it is an open book, walang itinatago ang military,” Guttierez said.
“This is a big opportunity for our long lost brothers and sisters to start a new life with a bright future for their families, and the money is intended to help the ex-rebels get started in civilian life, who are to be given amnesty,” Gutierrez added.
“We are here to help and assist in every possible way we can for their safety,” he said.
Those who surrendered, Gutierrez said, told them they were deceived by their leaders and had difficult lives in the mountains.
The 8th ID in the region is more determined to quash insurgency by 2016 as it announced a record number of NPA surrenderees and rebel camps raided all over the region
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6 NPA rebels yield to EastMinCom in a week
By: InterAksyon.com
August 22, 2013 3:39 PM
The Peace and Development Outreach Program implemented by units under the Eastern Mindanao Command, AFP has led to the simultaneous surrender of NPA members in less than a week, EastMinCom said in a report Thursday.
This batch brought to 147 the total number of NPA surrenderers to EastMinCom since January this year.
Five of those who surrendered were facilitated by Peace and Development Teams (PDT) of the 10th Infantry Division under Major General Ariel B Bernardo; the sixth, by the PDT of the 4th Infantry Division under Brigadier General Ricardo R Visaya.
Dike Caleste Espinosa AKA Jekjek surrendered on Aug. 19; three (names withheld) surrendered on Aug. 20; Levy Tadina Pugoso AKA Tata/Bayot surrendered on Aug. 20 while Ronnie Andaya Tiguasan, an NPA team leader, surrendered on Aug. 21.
They surrendered a total of three firearms.
All of them narrated the hardship they experienced with the armed group, saying thism and false hopes and promises, led to their surrender, which was also facilitated by local government officials.
Lt Gen Ricardo Rainier G Cruz III,commander of EastMinCom said, “We are sincere in our call for peace and we are very much thankful that LGUs are supportive of our efforts by directly assisting those who wish to surrender.”
Cruz said that any individual or organization can help facilitate or assist those they know who wish to surrender. “We also encourage everybody to be an advocate of peace. You can help in saving not only lives but also the souls of our misguided brothers by convincing them to live a peaceful life with their families, other than allowing them die in vain because of false promises by the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
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I posted a couple of articles on a well known cottage industry. A lucrative one by all accounts. A photo opportunity. Timed perfectly for the 6.0pm slot...rebels surrender. Can't bring myself to excavate further, except to point out, one of the protagonists is telling the most horrendous 'Porkie Pies.'
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Post by dodger on Aug 23, 2013 6:14:39 GMT
NPA rebels torch 4 dump trucks, cement mixer in Albay
By Mar S. Arguelles
Inquirer Southern Luzon
11:45 am | Friday, August 23rd, 2013
LEGAZPI CITY, Albay – A squad of New People’s Army guerrillas set on fire four dump trucks and a concrete mixer at a road construction site in the municipality of Pio Duran Thursday afternoon, a police official said on Friday.
The eight-man NPA team struck at the construction site in Barangay Salvacion, an upland village some 15 kilometers from the center of Pio Duran town, at 2:40 p.m., according to Senior Inspector Larry Prepotente, the town’s police chief.
Prepotente described the village as a hotbed of communist guerillas.
The attack surprised the 53 construction workers, some of whom were then unloading construction materials from the trucks while others were operating the cement mixer, Prepotente said in a phone interview.
The rebels gathered all the workers and asked them to turn off their cell phones. They then set on fire the trucks and cement mixer, worth P1.2 million.
Propotente said the trucks and cement mixer were owned by Geronimo David, project contractor of the Department of Public works and Highways.
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/472887/npa-rebels-torch-4-dump-trucks-cement-mixer-in-albay#ixzz2clmO3iCp
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Post by dodger on Aug 24, 2013 9:32:52 GMT
NPA warns of more operations in Agusan vs. abusers of revolutionary policies on environment, ancestral domain
Aris Francisco
Comval North Davao South Agusan Sub Regional Command, NPA-Southern Mindanao
August 23, 2013
More punitive actions shall be meted out by the New People's Army to the reactionary armed forces and capitalist invaders in Loreto and other towns in Agusan del Sur to defend the masses from encroachment, human rights atrocities and dislocation.
Enemy soldiers evacuate their wounded after the ambush.
It is only proper and rightful on the part of the Lumad Manobos and peasant masses to stand up and defend themselves against the onslaught of landgrabbing and plunder of their ancestral lands. That they shield their families from the abuses of the Philippine Army and evacuate to safer sanctuaries like Davao City reflect their independent tenacity and militant struggle to defend what is rightly theirs. As they expose the gross neglect and reactionary stance of civilian authorities like Gov. Eddiebong Plaza and Mayor Dario Otaza, they are rightfully holding the latter accountable for the torture, intimidation, and reign of terror perpetrated by the enemy.
While the peasant masses and national minorities struggle to defend their ancestral domain, Red fighters are determined to raise its capability to launch more and bigger tactical offensives against the enemies of the people.
Operatives belonging to the Comval North Davao South Agusan Sub regional Command-NPA have launched series of ambuscades against elements of the 26th Infantry Battalion and the 76th IB under the 4th Infantry Division-AFP since July to punish them for serving as goons to Loreto Mayor Otaza and his capitalist masters. The punitive actions, in the form of command detonated explosions and sniping operations have yielded to date 27 casualties in the Philippine Army and bagani paramilitary forces.
On July 27, the NPA harassed a team of soldiers in Binucayan, Sitio Onion twice during dawn time and in the afternoon; 2 soldiers belonging to the 76th IB and one paramilitary bagani were killed. On August 1, the NPA ambushed using a capto explosive in Barangay Pangkat hitting a military truck km40, killing four and wounding eight elements of the 26th IB. Since July 28 to August 7 in Brgy. Sabud Mansanitas, the soldiers were sniped by the NPA seven times wherein four 26th IB soldiers were killed and two were wounded. On August 8 at 6am, the NPA ambushed the 26th IB soldiers in Barangay Kauswagan, killing five and wounding one.
The NPA abides with the strict command and regulations of the People's Democratic Government to thwart any AFP unit from entering guerrilla zones and prevent these troops from spewing tyranny and committing the worse forms of atrocities to the people. Red fighters follows orders to seize all opportunities in order to mete out blows against the fascist troops and punish them for bringing in companies that violate the policies and laws of the revolutionary government. The NPA undertakes punitive operations against notorious enemy elements, despotic businessmen and landlords, and known civilian assets--some of whom are under cover of business or government entities.
The entry of palm oil and large-scale mining companies in Loreto violates the policies set forth by the revolutionary government on environmental protection, against plunder of the country's remaining natural resources and defense of ancestral territories. It directly contravenes the land reform program of the People's Democratic Government.
As peasants and Lumads wallow in abject poverty in Loreto and other towns in Agusan del Sur, capitalists are salivating over its untapped resources for palm oil and mining wealth. The world's leading palm oil magnate New British Palm Oil Limited is eyeing 36,000 hectares covering 11 villages in Loreto. Last year, individual agents for bugang and biofuel investors have approached Lumads and attempt to obtain their ancestral lands. The sharks offered to rent out ancestral lands for a fee of P35,000 for every hectare, covering a period of 25 years. Simple math would show that the lowly peasant or Lumad owner would only earn P1,400 a year or a measly P117 a month or P4 a day.
The masses are not fooled and can see through these wildly exploitative schemes. They, who have suffered from Typhoon Pablo and the continuing neglect of the US-Aquino regime, realize that these quick-money maneuvers are hugely disadvantageous. They realize that no genuine development can be had by the biofuel, palm oil plantations, nor in natural gas mining—projects that are heavily endorsed by the local reactionary government.
Indeed, true development is only within reach for the thousands of peasants in Loreto and in the countryside under the agrarian revolution program of the People's Democratic Government. The NPA intensifies the armed struggle as the people advance the agrarian revolution. It is in direct contrast to the military's so-called peace and development programs and the local government's red carpet treatment for capitalist investors.
Thus, it is only through the people's democratic revolution, not the military's peace and development nor the pseudo development programs of the local government that can truly change the lives of peasants and Lumads in Loreto and elsewhere in the countryside.
The main content of the revolution is the fulfillment of the peasants' demand for land and eradication of feudal and semi-feudal exploitation. Drastically reducing land rent, eliminating usury, free distribution of land and promoting productive cooperation-—these are activities that the 26th IB and 76th IB, paramilitary and the local reactionary government cannot surely do. Letting peasant associations function as cooperatives and mutual aid groups and permitting peasants to freely develop their own farms while cultivating communal farms are alien concepts in the so-called peace and development program of Oplan Bayanihan.
Thus, any pledge on the part of the military and the local reactionary bureaucracy in Agusan to give the peasants peace would merely be deceptive. The military and Mayor Otaza are intent in dismantling people's organizations and structures that protect and serve the interest of the masses. Mayor Otaza himself has vowed to destroy the farms of the masses and wipe out the NPA during his term. In the face of an extremely militarist and arrogant bureaucracy, and by further exploiting and oppressing the masses, the reactionary state merely foment people's resistance and revolutionary tide.theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2013/08/npa-warns-of-more-operations-in-agusan.html
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Post by dodger on Aug 25, 2013 17:40:13 GMT
Why and How the AFP and PNP are Losing the War
July 01, 2006
Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
NDFP National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Oplan Bantay Laya is now on its fifth year since its formal launching in early 2002. It has utterly failed to accomplish its declared objective of destroying the New People’s Army (NPA). It has only served to fan the flames of the armed revolution by subjecting the people to brutal campaigns of suppression in guerrilla fronts and unleashing extrajudicial killings and abductions against the legal opponents of the Arroyo regime.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), together with their irregular adjuncts like the CAFGUs, CVOs and death squads, will continue to lose in their counterrevolutionary war against the NPA and its complements like the local militia and self-defense units. The fake president is more absurd than ever before by boasting that the AFP and PNP can destroy the NPA in the next two years.
Why and how are the AFP and PNP losing the war? I answer the question as a commentator, analyst and longtime student of people’s war.
First, the AFP and PNP are the oppressive instruments of the US and other foreign monopoly interests and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords, while the NPA fights for the national and democratic rights of the working class, peasantry and the rest of the Filipino people.
Second, the AFP and PNP are hated by the people more than ever before because they commit gross human rights violations, reek with corruption and act like the private armies of the Arroyo ruling clique which has used them for electoral fraud and for the repression of the people and the legal opposition through intimidation, extrajudicial killings and abductions.
Third, the ever rising expenditures for the AFP and PNP are aggravating the economic crisis and are drawing resources away from social services like education, health and housing and from economic development, thus incurring the ire of the broad masses of the people.
Fourth, the rottenness of the AFP and the PNP is well exposed by their wanton violations of human rights, corruption, enjoyment of impunity and fractious condition due to subservience to conflicting political groups and involvement in criminal syndicates.
Fifth, the AFP and PNP top dogs want to win a war of quick decision by deploying large units as well as special operations teams for intelligence work, psywar and combat, while the NPA pursues the strategic line of protracted people’s war, accumulating armed strength in the countryside and encircling the cities until the time comes for seizing the cities on a nationwide scale.
In terms of number of full time armed personnel, training and equipment, the AFP and PNP may be considered superior to the NPA at the ratio of 10 against 1 at the strategic level. But the people are on the side of the NPA. They render the AFP and PNP deaf and blind. The NPA adheres strictly to the line of intensive and extensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base. Thus, it is superior to the AFP and PNP at the ratio of 10 against 1 at the tactical level.
The AFP and PNP have top heavy structures. At the most, the AFP can deploy only 25 per cent of its 120,000 at every given time. The PNP has regional mobile units but most of its 115,000 personnel are deployed in local communities and divided by three shifts of eight-hour duty. The small army detachments, local police and the CAFGUs, CVOs and other irregular units in localities are easy targets, whenever the bigger units are some distance away.
The NPA can observe the weak points of the enemy deployment, choose the time and place to launch a tactical offensive by surprise and muster superior strength against the selected enemy target. It can at will launch ambuscades, raids and arrest operations on enemy personnel. It can attack and destroy military and military-related installations and supply lines. It can seize weapons from its enemy and strengthen itself by taking the initiative and launching only those tactical offensives that it can win.
It can bleed the AFP and the PNP to death by launching so many tactical offensives everyday on a nationwide scale. It can watch its enemy clearly and can use effectively the tactics of concentration, dispersal and shifting. On the other hand, the AFP and PNP are deaf and blind and are confounded by the dilemma of concentration and dispersal in a fluid war of movement in which the NPA does not maintain fixed positions and fixed lines. ###
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Self evident the assessment was both well measured and prudent. After all it is 2013, above comments were made in 2006. Not be surprised to hear that Oplan Bantay Laya was replaced by Oplan Bantay Laya II. So another OPLAN to use the jargon, another assessment, linked below:
www.philippinerevolution.net/documents/resist-and-frustrate-oplan-bantay-laya-ii
2007, written in the same style, but intended as a primer. Not a single NPA front or platoon has been dismantled by the AFP up to now. That is worth bearing in mind. Quantity has a quality, all of its own. A raid down the road yielded enough high powered guns for a fresh platoon. It took 10mins. Their pursuers were cut down in a pre planned ambush and further arms obtained. A clean pair of heels. The provincial capital. Even the incumbent mayor at election had his media circus halted on the highway and his guards disarmed. He was allowed to proceed only after a ticking off, Peoples Revolutionary Government regulations concerning conduct of candidates at elections must be obeyed, "to the letter!!" No guns to be carried whilst canvassing. So a qualitative change in balance of forces is fast approaching. One can even smell it in the air, hereabouts at least. A Strategic Stalemate is within sight, maybe 5years.
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Post by dodger on Aug 26, 2013 9:22:14 GMT
NDF releases POW Arigonan in Maco
August 24, 2013
Rubi Del Mundo
Spokesperson
NDFP Southern Mindanao Chapter
Upon orders of the National Democratic Front Southern Mindanao, Private First Class Rodello Canada Arigonan (serial number 776045) was released today in Barangay Panangan, Maco town, Compostela Valley at 1pm.
Arigonan, a 1001st Brigade Headquarters utility personnel of 23 years, was released to members of the Sowing the Seeds of Peace and to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Arigonan’s wife was prevented by the military from meeting with her husband at the New People’s Army release site. She was, instead, confined to the Brigade headquarters in Brgy. Mapaang, Maco.
The NDF cited humanitarian grounds as reasons for the release of Arigonan, who was captured by NPA operatives belonging to the Comval Davao Gulf Sub Regional Command last August 3 in the vicinity of the military headquarters.
The 1001st Brigade-10th Infantry Division has stepped up its offensive military operations in Pantukan, Maco and Mabini towns, affecting peasant and mining communities to pave the way for the resumption of large-scale gold mining operations of American owned Russel Mining and the NADECOR (Nationwide Development Corporation) now owned by the Villars and Calalang group. The 28th Infantry Battalion was already augmented by another company-sized soldiers.
As more and more troops abuse communities and occupy civilian facilities to ensure the entry of big mining operations, more and more fascist troops would become targets of NPA’s punitive actions. The People’s Democratic Government will continue to impose its revolutionary policies on environmental protection and in defense of affected masses. It considers as enemies big foreign mining operators in cahoots with Filipino partners.
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A noble, rational but above all a practical gesture. The POW was investigated, found to have no blood debts against folk hereabouts. As stated, om release, the hapless fellow was spirited away by military minders. A repeat performance of other releases, where three fellows POW's, reunited under camera lights, flashes..media frenzy, hugs tears and the bombshell. "We were treated like brothers--regular medical checks-- our relatives regularly informed--we ate, what they ate!" Caused much gnashing of teeth, glares and for all I know kicks under the table. The mayor ever on the lookout in an election year for media exposure, praised their captors too. Throw away the script. Military public relations, wrong footed yet again. Phrases like bandits, kidnappers and of course the obligatory 'terrorist' label, fell well wide of the mark. Hollow. More praise from negotiators, for the speedy conclusion and happy outcome. 'Put a lid on it !' Not around here yer can't...his sister has baked a cake..on the lunchtime news.
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Post by dodger on Aug 26, 2013 13:08:31 GMT
Marine wounded in ambush by suspected NPA men in Palawan
By Redempto Anda
Inquirer Southern Luzon
3:31 pm | Monday, August 26th, 2013
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — A Marine was wounded in an ambush staged by suspected New People’s Army rebels in Taytay, northern Palawan Monday morning.
Major Oliver Banaria, Western Command spokesman, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that a two-vehicle convoy of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 based in San Vicente town was on its way to Taytay at around 10:30 a.m. when they were waylaid by an undetermined number of armed men.
Banaria said a brief firefight ensued between the communist rebels and government troops before the rebels fled the area.
He said the still unnamed wounded soldier was brought to a rural hospital in Roxas, Palawan, for treatment.
“We had no casualty on our side and we have launched a pursuit operation,” said Banaria.
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/474919/marine-wounded-in-ambush-by-suspected-npa-men-in-palawan#ixzz2d4y2pBcd
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Amongst much Hoo-Haa the Island of Palawan was declared "Insurgent Free". A two vehicle convoy with elite Marines onboard. With one wounded casualty, acknowledged by the Command spokesman giving that the lie. A hole punched into the Marines inflated reputation. In broad daylight too. |
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Post by dodger on Aug 27, 2013 14:12:25 GMT
‘Curing the symptom rather than the disease’
By Satur C. Ocampo
At Ground Level | The Philippine Star
Last Thursday, AFP Chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista called a command conference at Camp Aguinaldo to assess the military operations in the first half of 2013 under Oplan Bayanihan, the Aquino government’s counterinsurgency plan.
The assessment was a mixture of success and failure. Nonetheless, Bautista declared the AFP was “on track” in meeting the plan’s deadline in 2016, when President Aquino’s term ends.
As culled from various media reports, here’s the picture:
• The AFP increased its “engagements” against the New People’s Army to 350 in the first semester, up from 312 in the same period last year. Of the 350 engagements, 252 occurred in Eastern Mindanao, where Bautista said majority of the NPA members operate.
• The number of NPA members “apprehended” numbered 99, compared to 50 in the first semester of 2012.
• During the period, the NPA increased its “tactical offensive” operations against the AFP to 173, from 162 in the first semester last year.
• Bautista placed the number of NPA members at “more than 4,000.” A check by the Philippine STAR on AFP records, however, reveals that the number has remained at that level in the last three years.
About that Bautista explained: “We have significant numbers of surrenderees from the ranks of the NPA… (but) there have been continuous recruitments and it’s unfortunate the recruits they’re getting are from the youth, from farmers and indigenous peoples.”
Note: The Karapatan report on human rights violations in the first three years of P-Noy’s term shows there were 142 incidents of extrajudicial killings. Of the 142 victims, 80 were peasants and 27 were leaders of indigenous peoples.
• The AFP chief said 29 of the country’s 81 provinces (declared by the AFP as “insurgency-free” provinces) have been handed over to local government units, which assumed the lead role in maintaining peace and security in their respective jurisdictions. He added that 13 more provinces are targeted for similar turnover by the end of 2013.
In declaring that Oplan Bayanihan remained on track, Bautista adverted to its six-year timetable: 2011-2016. However, he papered over the fact that the plan, officially titled “Internal Peace and Security Plan,” sets two phases. It says:
“For the first three years of implementation (2011 to 2013), AFP efforts shall focus on addressing internal armed threat groups. The substantial completion of the AFP’s objectives for the first three years will allow it to devote the remaining years (2014 to 2016) to handing over the lead role in ensuring internal peace and security to appropriate government agencies and eventually allowing the AFP to initiate its transition to a territorial defense-focused force.”
Obviously, the AFP hasn’t “substantially” completed its first objective, admittedly with only 29 provinces turned over to LGUs. Granting that 13 more would be added by end-2013, the total would be only 32 out of 81 provinces. Not a “substantial completion.”
Moreover, the AFP has to work faster — because Oplan Bayanihan’s stated “strategic intent” or “end state” (a term derived from the 2009 US Counterinsurgency Guide, after which the IPSP was patterned) is to “render(ing) the NPA irrelevant, with the communist insurgency abandoning the armed struggle and ultimately engaging in peace negotiations with the government.”
P-Noy’s installing Bautista at the topmost AFP post last January was apparently intended to rev up the implementation of Oplan Bayanihan, of which the general is credited as its “key author.” Rightly so, Bautista declared upon his appointment: “I am now in a position to influence the implementation of Bayanihan as chief of staff, because I now become its operational commander.”
Noticeably, after Bautista took direct operational command there has been a flurry of field reports on alleged successes of Oplan Bayanihan programs and activities designed to induce NPA leaders and members to surrender.
Since May, AFP brigade commanders have been reporting the surrender of some NPA local unit leaders and members to avail of the military’s “Guns for Peace” program, initiated in April. Under this program, each “surrenderee” is paid cash for every weapon he yields to the AFP or to LGU authorities. The cash offerings reportedly ranged as follows: P200,000 for a light machinegun; P60,000 for a M-14 rifle; P50,000 for a M-16 rifle and .45 caliber pistol.
In addition, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, which oversees the government’s “peace and development program” under PAMANA (Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan), has pitched in. The OPAPP reportedly provides P50,000 to each NPA surrenderee as a “customized package and means of livelihood” through its Comprehensive Local Integration Program, which started in July 2012.
Also, according to several local media reports posted in the Internet in batches, provincial governments that have cooperated with the AFP and OPAPP (such as those of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Leyte, and Davao del Norte) have reportedly offered P10,000 financial aid and P25,000 livelihood support for every surrenderee.
Alas, this surrender-via-financial-inducement is a slide back to the old counterinsurgency mindset of “curing the symptom rather than the disease” — which failed. By re-adopting it the AFP and OPAPP have practically abandoned P-Noy’s mantra: “address the root causes of the armed conflict.”
But who knows, P-Noy himself may have abandoned it.
July 13, 2013
- See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/07/14/curing-the-symptom-rather-than-the-disease/#sthash.BuHHJabk.dpuf
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Worth pointing out many of the partizans have a price on their head. 7.4m Pesos, might not mean anything to you? Let me express it in another way....An agricultural labourer would have to work 155 years to amass that sum. Would 155 years wages tempt you? "No--No--No".......OK I believe you. The writer of this article has spent a lifetime in the struggle and has his finger on the pulse.
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Post by dodger on Aug 28, 2013 17:35:27 GMT
NPA ambush kills militia in Compostela Valley
Wednesday, August 28, 2013 09:50:59 PM
DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 28, 2013) – Communist rebels killed a government militia and wounded a soldier in an ambush in the southern Philippine province of Compostela Valley province, officials told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Officials said New People’s Army opened fire on the duo – Matrinillo Enot and Pfc. Calid Alo – who were travelling on a motorcycle in the village of Casoon in Monkayo town.
The rebels escaped after the ambush allowing villagers to help the victims who were rushed to hospital in Tagum City, according to army Capt. Albert Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command.
Caber, quoting a Lt. Col. Elmer Aterado, commander of the 25th Infantry Battalion, said the victims were unarmed and in civilian clothes heading to their patrol base when the attack occurred.
“This is another deliberate violation against human rights committed by the NPA. Our troops are simply protecting the community from illegal activities of the NPA such as extortion, among others,” Aterado said.
Caber said the Lt. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, condemned the attack on Alo and Enot and ordered troops to intensify their operations against the rebel group, which has been fighting for a separate state in the country.
“I directed all military units to remain vigilant in carrying out peace and development initiatives in the region,” Cruz said.
The NPA owned up the attack and said it was part of a harassment campaign to combat preparations for the bio-fuel, palm oil and mining projects in Agusan and Compostela Valley boundaries.
It accused the military, specially its so-called peace and development teams, of abusing villagers to pave the way for the large-scale bio-fuel, palm oil and mining projects.
“These active NPA tactical offensives are meant to protect the gains of the anti-feudal campaign in the countryside of Agusan and Compostela Valley boundaries,” Aris Francisco, a spokesman for the rebel forces operating in the area, said in a separate statement to the Mindanao Examiner.
“The masses and the revolutionary forces are persevering in advancing the agrarian revolution in these areas. In the last couple of years and more so in recent months, advances in the struggle for land reform are gaining momentum—successes which the enemy are seeking to reverse. Village-level anti-feudal struggles are gaining ground and reactivating thousands of mass activists and revolutionary mass organizations. The collective work and communal work in the farms have benefited thousands of peasant and Lumad families in Agusan,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)
www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20130828085059
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Post by dodger on Aug 29, 2013 7:24:33 GMT
2 cops wounded in Mountain Province clash with NPA rebels
By Kimberlie Quitasol, Vincent Cabreza
Inquirer Northern Luzon
11:52 am | Thursday, August 29th, 2013
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—At least two policemen were wounded in a firefight with suspected communist rebels in Mountain Province on Thursday morning, a top Cordillera police official said.
Chief Superintendent Benjamin Magalong, regional police director, said the clash between a team of policemen and about 25 suspected New People’s Army rebels broke out at 7:40 a.m. in the boundary of Barangay Aguid in Sagada and Barangay Mainit in the capital town of Bontoc.
Magalong did not identify the wounded policemen, saying he was waiting for more details about the clash.
He said the police had been tracking rebel movements in Mountain Province following the June 28 attack on a group of police trainees in Tadian town.
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/477035/2-cops-wounded-in-mountain-province-clash-with-npa-rebels#ixzz2dL9dWNhq |
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Post by dodger on Aug 29, 2013 10:31:17 GMT
NPA to reach 10,000 Red fighters in few years amidst Aquino failure to address roots of civil war
July 12, 2013
Communist Party of the Philippines. 
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said for the first time in its history, the number of New People’s Army (NPA) Red fighters with high-powered rifles is on its way to reach 10,000 levels in the next few years amidst the utter failure of the Aquino regime to address the nationalist and democratic demands of the Filipino people which are at the root of the raging civil war.
The CPP issued this statement in reaction to public admission by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that it has failed to make a dent on the strength of the NPA. The AFP, however, downplayed its failure by understating the strength of the NPA as “over 4,000” members from the supposed base number of 4,384 when the AFP launched its Oplan Bayanihan campaign in January 1, 2011.
“Clearly, the AFP cannot counter the fact that over the past several years the NPA has steadily grown in strength,” said the CPP. “The nationwide advances of the revolutionary armed struggle is indubitably demonstrated by the increasing frequency and bigger tactical offensives being carried out by the New People’s Army (NPA) in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.”
“To portray themselves as impressive, the AFP repeats the baseless claim that the NPA had the peak strength of 25,000 in 1986 but has recently dropped to 6,000 and has further been whittled down to 4,000 under the Aquino regime,” pointed out the CPP.
“These are all groundless claims being made by the AFP. In fact, the peak strength of the NPA was only at 6,100 Red fighters with high-powered rifles in 1986. Because of the internal errors, the NPA’s strength slowly declined up to 1992 and thereabouts, when the CPP launched the 2nd rectification movement. By 1998, the NPA strength returned to the level of the early 1980s when it started to make big strides forward.”
“Over the past several years, the NPA has surpassed its former peak strength in 1986 and is on its way to reach the 10,000 levels in the next few years,” pointed out the CPP. “The NPA is setting its sights on building around 180 guerrilla fronts nationwide with one company of Red fighters each, and with its armed strength further amplified by tens of thousands of armed militias and members of barrio self-defense committees.”
“Commands of the NPA nationwide continue to fulfill the tasks of extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare, while pushing forward the widespread the revolutionary land reform movement and methodically building the infrastructure of the people’s democratic government from one level to another higher level,” added the CPP. “There are, of course, NPA units that are still small and weak, but these are being assisted by other NPA units that are stronger and more advanced.”
“According to targets of the Oplan Bayanihan made public by the AFP in 2011, the strength of the NPA will supposedly have been reduced by more than half by the middle of 2013 or around this time. The plan set by the AFP in the next phase is to transfer ‘counter-insurgency duties’ to the Philippine National Police and have the AFP concentrate on ‘external threats’.”
“Clearly, the Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan is bound to fail,” said the CPP. “Not only has the AFP failed to reduce the NPA strength to insignificant levels, it has succeeded only in rousing the oppressed people further to engage in armed and unarmed resistance by subjecting them to brutal and repressive military campaigns deceptively characterized by the AFP as ‘peace and development’ operations.”
“The Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan will end up like the Arroyo’s Oplan Gordian Knot and Oplan Bantay Laya I & II, Estrada’s Oplan Makabayan and the first to the fourth phase of the Oplan Lambat Bitag carried out by the Aquino and Ramos regime from 1986 to 1998,” said the CPP. “All these oplans have met utter failure because these are nothing but war plans to suppress the Filipino people and stop them from waging democratic struggles and armed resistance.”
“The correctness and necessity of waging revolutionary armed struggle has become more crystal clear to the Filipino people with the Aquino regime choosing to terminate peace negotiations and further advancing the neoliberal policies that serve the interests of foreign big mining companies and plantations, other big capitalists and Aquino’s big landlords and big business allies to the detriment of the Filipino people.”
“Aquino and his military officials are obsessed with defeating the people’s armed resistance through military force and armed campaigns of suppression,” said the CPP. “Aquino and the AFP are very wrong to think that with all-out US financial and military support, it will be able to put an end to the people’s armed and democratic revolutionary resistance through sheer force.”
“After three years in power and all its political dressing-up, the Aquino regime has failed in achieving the declared objective of Oplan Bayanihan to ‘gain the trust of the people’ for the rotten social and political system which has become ever more oppressive and exploitative.”
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No attempt made here to gild the lily. The contradictions on show (problems) are writ long and large. It enables people here to despise the enemy strategically whilst taking him serious tactically. Asymmetric or Guerrilla Warfare can be grasped by anyone. Dialectics coupled with a taking hold of the art of war has led to assimilation of knowledge. Virtually indestructable. These then are the physical limitations within which the struggle prospers or fails. The goals set are both attainable and will lead to a qualitative change. |
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Post by dodger on Aug 29, 2013 17:11:46 GMT
NPA intensifies enemy harassment, advances anti-feudal struggle
Aris Francisco
NPA-Comval North Davao South Agusan Sub Regional Command
August 28, 2013
The Comval North Davao South Agusan Sub Regional Command- New People's Army has resumed its enemy harassment campaign to combat preparations for the anti-people biofuel, palm oil and mining projects in Agusan and Compostela Valley boundaries.
Red fighters belonging to the Guerilla Front 3-NPA ambushed yesterday, August 27, a military detachment of the 72nd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Casoon, Monkayo, with one Cafgu killed and a cadreman wounded. A day before, on Monday, another team exploded a capto blast in another detachment of the 60th IB in Barangay Katipunan, Laak town.
The 60th IB expands its area of coverage from Davao City to Davao del Norte to Agusan boundaries as it joins forces with the notorious 26th IB, the army unit responsible for the abuses of peasants and Lumads in Loreto town, Agusan del Sur. Its Reengineered Special Operations Team, deceptively called Peace and Development Teams, along with elements of the 72nd IB continue to conduct psychological warfare against the masses and abuses to pave the way for the large-scale biofuel, palm oil and mining projects.
These active NPA tactical offensives are meant to protect the gains of the anti-feudal campaign in the countryside of Agusan and Comval boundaries.
The masses and the revolutionary forces are persevering in advancing the agrarian revolution in these areas. In the last couple of years and more so in recent months, advances in the struggle for land reform are gaining momentum—successes which the enemy are seeking to reverse. Village-level anti-feudal struggles are gaining ground and reactivating thousands of mass activists and revolutionary mass organizations. The collective work and communal work in the farms have benefited thousands of peasant and Lumad families in Agusan.
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Post by dodger on Aug 30, 2013 13:16:11 GMT
Opportunist leader Ruben Labawan responsible for CVO ambush
August 29, 2013
Tano Paragas
Spokesperson
Southern Mindanao Sub-regional Command (Davao City-Bukidnon Sub-regional Command)
So-called civilian volunteers who were hit by the New People’s Army (NPA)’s command detonated explosive last Monday in Barangay Tapak, Paquibato were paramilitary baganis recruited by the notorious Ruben Labawan and who were engaged in banditry and various atrocities when they were ambushed.
Labawan has again showed his ugly fangs as a loyal dog to the AFP 10th Infantry Division by sowing terror among Lumads and peasants. Labawan ordered his throng of paramilitary CVOs to commit banditry by confiscating a cattle and a pig from the masses after a CAFGU went AWOL and stole a garand rifle in a detachment in Kalagangan, San Fernando town, Bukidnon.
The CAFGU abandoned the San Fernando detachment because he was disillusioned with the delayed wages, and he felt discriminated among his colleagues. CAFGUs like him are bound to suffer under the present system where only the generals enjoy the largesse from a corrupt US-Aquino regime while foot soldiers and force multipliers such as CAFGUs and CVOs make do with paltry compensation. As they suffer, they become enlightened with the fact that they cannot continue to serve a government and an armed forces that steal from the people’s sweat and blood.
And as the number of CAFGUs abandoning their posts rise, Labawan and running dogs in the AFP are likely to heap their rage over the poor peasants and commit atrocious criminal actions against the people. The military employs the classic tactic of pitting Lumads against Lumads to control ancestral territories and make it easier for capitalist mining companies to enter and exploit ancestral resources.
Labawan is already exposed in the past as among the notorious Lumad opportunists who are eager to sell ancestral lands to the highest bidders, destroyers of the environment and landgrabbers. He and his minions rightly deserve the people’s wrath and the blows inflicted by the New People’s Army.
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Post by dodger on Aug 31, 2013 9:53:55 GMT
www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20130821/ayta-tribespeople-evicted-from-their-landAyta tribespeople evicted from their land
Ayta communities have long been suffering from intense militarization and repression. Under the US-Aquino regime, their exploitation and oppression have worsened. The Ayta are now being driven away from their land more often and on a wider scale to give way to mining companies, real estate development and eco-tourism projects. They are also being evicted using the pretext of reforestation and their land converted to plantations.
Destructive mining operations conducted by gigantic mining firms are rampant in Central Luzon. Among these companies are Pisumpan Copper Mines Inc. and Shuley Mines Inc. in Barangay Camias, Porac, Pampanga. The Dizon family also controls quarrying and other mining operations on 825 hectares in Barangay Mabulliat in Porac; 8,756 hectares in Barangays Aglao and Buhawen in San Marcelino, Zambales; and 1,107 hectares in Barangay Panlag, Floridablanca, Pampanga. Black sand mining is likewise widespread in Ayta areas in the towns of San Marcelino, San Felipe and Botolan in Zambales.
Meanwhile, a university is responsible for grabbing national minority lands in Abucay, Bataan. Seven hectares in Hacienda Buena, Hermosa, Bataan had also already been taken from the Ayta. Another group of Ayta tribespeople has been displaced from their swidden farms in the upland areas of Mayantoc, Tarlac to give way to a rubber plantation controlled by foreign and local corporations. The project will be implemented under the National Greening Program of the reactionary government, using “reforestation” as a pretext.
Ayta lands are also being plundered in the name of eco-tourism. One instance involves the eviction of 80 Ayta families because of the construction of a golf course and other tourism projects under the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) in Angeles City. The Ayta are then recruited as workers receiving substandard wages and laboring under more oppressive conditions.
In Barangays Nabuklod, Mawacat and Camachile in Floridablanca, Pampanga, the government has incessantly been deceiving the Ayta in the name of eco-tourism. It has constructed vast “viewing deck covered farms” and “Ayta sacred places” and recruited the tribespeople as tour guides, souvenir makers and guards but has prohibited them from farming, hunting and engaging in other traditional activities.
There are Korean-owned eco-tourism projects in Barangay Sapang Bato, Angeles City and Barangay Inararo, Porac, Pampanga where restaurants, hot spring spas and other facilities designed to lure in tourists have been built. As usual, the Ayta have become contractual and lowly paid workers without any benefits in these facilities.
In Barangay Maamot, San Jose and Barangay Sta. Juliana, Capas, both in Tarlac province, some 500 Ayta families have been affected by the construction of the Balog-balog Dam.
Meanwhile, the reactionary Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) has reduced the land reserved for the Ayta. In Barangay Nabuklod, Pampanga alone, their land has been reduced from 10,000 to a mere 5,000 hectares.
Victims of militarization
Side by side with government and private projects that have been driving the Ayta from their land, militarization plagues their communities. In Porac, Pampanga, the Philippine Army 70th IB which has been stationed in the area since 2004 has been responsible for many acts of brutality against the Ayta. Local residents are frequently intimidated and their domiciles violated. CAFGU elements routinely train their guns at them. Many have been tortured. Those suspected of supporting the New People’s Army are included in the military’s “order of battle” and targeted for surveillance, harassment and extrajudicial killing.
Ayta eco-tourism workers in Floridablanca, Pampanga are likewise being subjected to harassment and forcibly recruited as Bantay Gubat elements under the Philippine Air Force. Meanwhile, Ayta lands in Zambales covered by mining operations have been militarized, with soldiers serving as security guards. The military has also built a shooting range and set up a checkpoint at the Balog-balog Dam area in Tarlac.
The US-RP Balikatan Exercises are also held in Central Luzon almost every year, militarizing Ayta communities in Tarlac and Zambales.
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Post by dodger on Aug 31, 2013 9:59:04 GMT
4 military actions in Misamis Oriental
Seven soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in harassment actions by the New People’s Army (NPA) under the Eastern Misamis Oriental-North Eastern Bukidnon Subregional Command. According to the command’s spokesperson Lorena Mangahas, the military actions were launched successively over a period of four days against the 58th IB which is conducting operations in Claveria town in Misamis Oriental this August.
A squad of Red fighters figured in an encounter with 58th IB troops in Barangay Aposkahoy on August 9. The NPA took position on higher ground where the mercenary military troops were passing. Two soldiers were killed when the NPA used a command-detonated explosive against the soldiers. Villagers who witnessed the incident said that the military casualties were loaded on a six-by-six truck.
On the other hand, an NPA reconnaissance team skirmished with another column of the 58th IB that had returned to Barangay Aposkahoy at 9:30 a.m of August 10.
On August 11, an NPA team launched a successful military action anew in Barangay Bulahan, at around 6 a.m. The guerrillas positioned themselves by the roadside and attacked the military troopers who were passing by. They were a mere three meters from the Red fighters. Four soldiers were killed and three were wounded on the military side.
At around 2 p.m. in Barangay Parmbugas, an NPA team harassed 58th IB troops, killing a soldier, according to partial reports.
The military operation began as far back as April and is ongoing as of August.
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Post by dodger on Aug 31, 2013 10:02:37 GMT
www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20130821/national-minorities-hold-conferenceNational minorities hold conference
Up to 80 representatives of indigenous peoples nationwide attended the National Forum on Indigenous Peoples and World Conference on Indigenous Peoples held at the SEAMEO-Infotech in Diliman, Quezon City on August 7-8. The seminar tackled the conditions of national minorities under the Aquino regime.
According to the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), Benigno Aquino III has failed to address the grievances of national minorities since he took power and has shelved the issues they raised as far back as three years ago. National minorities have never enjoyed the right to self-determination and to land as well as basic services, said the CPA.
The conditions of national minorities have worsened because they are affected by large-scale mining and other government projects that displace them from their ancestral lands.
Meanwhile, the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan sa Pilipinas (KAMP) assailed Aquino not only for opening the country’s natural resources to big foreign and local capitalist exploitation, but for implementing the destructive Oplan Bayanihan. Many national minorities have become victims of human rights violations. Under Aquino, up to 35 of them have been killed. Trumped-up charges have been filed against 260 minorities and more than 4,000 have been forcibly evacuated, mostly in Mindanao. Some of the more striking human rights violations involving minorities are the massacre of the Capion family who are members of the Blaan tribe in South Cotabato; the murder of Matigsalog tribal chieftain Jimmy Liguyon in Bukidnon; the arrest in Kalinga of Kennedy Bangibang of the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front; and the arrest in Surigao del Sur of Manobo tribal leader Jalandoni Campos.
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