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Post by dodger on Oct 8, 2013 14:04:32 GMT
NPA killed, soldier wounded in Capiz clashes
By Frances Mangosing INQUIRER.net 2:38 pm | Tuesday, October 8th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines – A communist rebel was killed and a soldier was wounded in clashes between the New People’s Army guerrillas and government troops in Capiz on Tuesday, the military said.
Army’s 3rd Infantry Division spokesman Major Ray Tiongson said that troops from the Army’s 61st Infantry Battalion fought the insurgents in the villages of Nayawan and Tacayan in Tapaz town.
The soldiers were patrolling the villages when they encountered about 40 members of the NPA at 6:45 a.m. A firefight broke out and lasted for three hours.
At about 11: 45 a.m. on the same day, a 45-minute firefight erupted.
A guerrilla known only as Pastor, a resident of Lambunao, Iloilo, was killed in the skirmish.
On the military side, Private First Class Ricky Llorico was wounded. He was evacuated by a Huey helicopter and brought to hospital for treatment. He was already in stable condition, the military said.
Additional troops were sent for pursuit operations, Tiongson said.Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/502799/npa-killed-soldier-wounded-in-capiz-clashes#ixzz2h8eujDOD Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
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Post by dodger on Oct 8, 2013 14:15:21 GMT
Detained UP prof in Davao Oriental an NPA, AFP claims
Posted by: DAVAO TODAY Posted date: October 04, 2013
By DAVAO TODAY
The Armed Forces of the Philippines claimed on Thursday that the University of the Philippines Professor Kim Gargar, whom they captured in Cateel, Davao Oriental, was a member of the New People’s Army.
Lt. Colonel Krishnamurti Mortela, commander of the 67th Infantry Battalion Commanding Officer said in a statement that “Gargar was captured by the troops who were pursuing the rebels after a firefight in (Barangay) Aliwagwag, (Cateel, Davao Oriental).”
He said troops pursuing the guerrillas found Gargar “wounded” and “unconscious while clutching a rifle 200 meters away from the encounter site”.
“An M16 rifle, landmines and subversive documents were recovered from him,” Mortela added.
The troops brought Gargar to the Davao Oriental provincial hospital for treatment, the statement further said.
The statement further alleged that Gargar joined the NPA in Compostela Valley in 2012, after spending years teaching in UP Diliman from 2000 to 2003 then in various universities in Manila and Cagayan de Oro.
The statement further said that Gargar, while studying for a doctorate degree in Netherlands, “helped CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines)-NPA founder Joma Sison in the production of several books aimed to exploiting the countryside”.
While the AFP Eastern Mindanao Command Commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III said that their handling of “Gargar is an example of how soldiers value and respect human rights”, he would still be charged with violation of Republic Act 9516 or “An Act Imposing Stiffer Penalties for Certain Violations of Illegal/Unlawful Possession of Explosives”, another two cases of attempted murder and violation of the Comelec gun ban.
Gargar’s lawyer, Atty. Joel Mahinay from the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao, said the charges “are fabrications heaped on Gargar by the military after their encounter with the NPA.”
Mahinay said Gargar explained that the reported encounter between the NPA and government troops in Aliwagwag last Monday happened “1.5 kilometers away from where he was found by the soldiers.”
“Gargar was conducting a scientific study on the impact of Typhoon Pablo in that area, which is intended to help in the rehabilitation and reforestation plans for Davao Oriental by Balsa Mindanao,” Mahinay added.
Juland Suazo, Panalipdan spokerperson said Gargar joined Balsa Mindanao’s fact-finding and relief mission to the Typhoon-Pablo affected towns in Baganga, Davao Oriental last April that got stranded for one night after “harassments” by state security agents. (see article here)
Meanwhile, the scientists group AGHAM (Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya Para sa Sambayanan or Advocates of Science and Technology for the People), in which Gargar is a member, released a statement condemning the arrest and charges.
“We condemn the illegal detention and harassment of Kim. He should be freed immediately as his arrest and detention is illegal,” said AGHAM President and UP Diliman Professor Giovanni Tapang.
AGHAM’s statement posted on its Facebook page detailed Gargar’s involvement in various investigations on environment issues across the country.
“As a volunteer scientist of AGHAM, (Gargar) has been involved in various activities concerning people’s welfare. He took part in many investigative missions such as the impacts of monocrop cassava plantation in Isabela, flood monitoring in Buwaya River and technical review of the Philex mine tailings spill. His recent work on typhoon Pablo research led him to go to Eastern Mindanao for a comprehensive assessment of the affected areas. Despite sterling credentials in the Academe, he chose to make use of his knowledge and expertise not for his own personal gain but for the benefit of the marginalized people.” The post read.
Tapang said Gargar was a PhD student at Groningden (Netherlands) in Chronobiology and taught in UP Diliman and Mapua Institute of Technology. (davaotoday.com)
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Post by dodger on Oct 8, 2013 14:19:20 GMT
CPP supports calls for release of UP professorOctober 08, 2013  Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) expressed support for the demand of human rights groups, youth groups, teachers and scientists calling for the release of UP professor Kim Gargar, who is presently being detained in the Davao Oriental Provincial Jail in Mati town.
Professor Gargar was taken into custody last October 1 by soldiers of the 67th Infantry Battalion in Cateel, Davao Oriental, near an area where they encountered a unit of the New People’s Army (NPA) several hours earlier. The military claims Gargar was arrested with an M-16 rifle, “landmines” and so-called subversive documents.
The UP professor denied all charges against him by the AFP. In interviews, he asserted that he has been in Compostela Valley since late June to carry out a six-month resource mapping to develop a reforestation program with the aim of rehabilitating the areas devastated by typhoon Pablo in December 2012. Gargar said his research effort is in coordination with the Panalipdan environmental group and the Balsa Mindanao disaster relief network.
Professor Gargar is the Networking Officer of the Center for Environmental Concerns–Philippines and a PhD candidate in Chronobiology in the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in The Netherlands. He finished his masteral education in Physics at the University of the Philippines, and BS in Physics, magna cum laude, at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology in 2000.
“The CPP supports the call for the release of Professor Gargar and the return of all his scientific notes, digital files, research and personal materials. His continued detention prevents him from conducting his research work for the people of Compostela Valley and will only serve the big mining companies that do not want to be bothered by demands for reforestration and rehabilitation,” said the CPP.
“Professor Gargar’s detention underscores the grave injustice in Philippine society where the big plunderers of the environment and the people’s money enjoy their high-style living while those who choose to serve the people and defend their land and resources are made to rot in jail.”
“The arrest and detention of Professor Gargar reminds us of the growing number of cases of wrongful arrests and killings by the reactionary armed forces victimizing civilians which the AFP have accused as being members of the NPA,” said the CPP.
Recently, the AFP was compelled to release Rolly Panesa, a security guard employed by the Megaforce Security. Panesa was arrested by the AFP in October 5, 2012 and accused as being “Benjamin Mendoza” whom the AFP claimed to be a leader of the CPP in the Southern Tagalog region. He was severely tortured and detained for nine months and was released only last September.
In November 15, 2010, troops of the 19th IB shot at the team of distinguished botanist Leonardo Co killing Co and his two companions Ronino Gibe and Policarpio Batute. In February 16, 2012, elements of the 1st Special Forces Battalion, 1st Infantry Battalion and the 59th Infantry Battalion fired at forest hunters in Magdalena, Laguna killing two residents and wounding three. In October 18, 2012, soldiers of the 27th IB killed pregnant mother Jovy Capion and her two sons age 13 and 8.
“In these and numerous other cases of killing or arresting ordinary civilians, the AFP invariably claim that they encountered members of the New People’s Army,” said the CPP. “They make grand declarations that those arrested or killed are leaders of the CPP or NPA as if these justify their fascist crimes.”
“The all-out support extended by Aquino to the AFP’s Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression has emboldened the fascist soldiers to wage all-out war in the countryside with complete disregard for human rights and international humanitarian law.”
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Post by dodger on Oct 8, 2013 14:45:15 GMT
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Post by dodger on Oct 8, 2013 14:55:31 GMT
www.ndfp.net/joom15/index.php/media-releases-mainmenu-53/statements-mainmenu-71/1874-philippine-army-lying-about-oplan-bayanahihan-weakening-npa-in-bicol-region.htmlPhilippine Army lying about Oplan Bayanahihan weakening NPA in Bicol regionSunday, 29 September 2013 NDFP Bicol Information Office
Lt. Col. Medel Aguilar, Spokesperson of the 9th Infantry Division, Philippine Army, leaves the public in the dark as he conceals the fact that no less than Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista admitted at a command conference on 11 July 2013 that they have failed in implementing Oplan Bayanihan counter-insurgency program in its first phase.
Plainly, this means that any counterrevolutionary campaign which does not resolve ancient problems of landlessness, poverty, and injustice will surely fail to win the support of the masses.
No amount of Oplan Bayanihan-designed public relations stunts could conceal the true nature of the 9th Infantry Division: It serves as the ruling class' armed force of repression in denying the poor and oppressed Bicolanos of their democratic rights and legitimate demands. Furthermore, worsening crises plaguing the country embolden the people to take the path of revolution and dispel any illusion being peddled by the jesters of Oplan Bayanihan.
True to its psywar policy, Lt. Col. Aguilar likewise deceives the people in self-assuredly declaring that the recent widespread military actions by the New People's Army-Bicol are mere "acts of attention-seeking by a weakened NPA". Either that, or he displays his ignorance of military theories. Nonetheless, the 9th ID Spokesperson should know that launching military attrition against the enemy are part of the NPA's guerrilla strategy and tactics in order to gradually defeat a relatively stronger but unpopular AFP.
Definitely, a revolutionary guerrilla army rendering heavy casualties on the AFP from across the region means a strengthening NPA. In Sorsogon province alone, at least eleven 31st Infantry Battalion troopers were killed and six others were wounded in three separate NPA ambushes in Bulan and Juban on 21-22 September. On the other hand, only two Red fighters were slightly wounded.
On the 22 Sept. ambush, AFP helicopters were ordered by 903rd Infanty Brigade commanding officer Col. Joselito Kakilala to strafe two villages of Juban because the AFP troopers, as Col. Kakilala estimated, were "outnumbered". Certainly, such victories cannot be won by a "weakened" NPA. Perhaps, Lt. Col. Aguilar could easily comprehend this simple logic.
Ultimately, this means that it is the NPA who are cherished by the people, as these recent tactical offensives would not have been successfully carried out if not because of the people's support.
Only the wracked 9th Infantry Division and the oppressors of the poor are troubled with news of the triumphs of the people's army. In the hearts and minds of the broad masses, however, such victories broadcast their continuing liberation from the worsening and wide-ranging crisis that afflict the country every single day.
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Post by dodger on Oct 12, 2013 11:05:46 GMT
13 government soldiers killed in Quezon, Bukidnon
October 12, 2013
Spokesperson
NPA South Central Bukidnon Sub Regional Command
Thirteen soldiers of the 8th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army were killed when a unit of the New People’s Army under the South Central Bukidnon (NPA-SCB) Subregional Command employed a command-detonated explosive against them in Sitio Tubod, Brgy. Cawayan, Quezon, Bukidnon, October 6, 2013, around 5:30 PM. Many more soldiers were wounded, while the guerrilla unit implementing the offensive action suffered no casualties.
The 8th IB troops were on combat mission from Kiranggol, San Fernando, to bolster the distressed force of the Butsoy Salusad bandit group in the wake of the recent NPA attack. The Red army has thoroughly monitored their exit route towards Quezon, Bukidnon.
An NPA team swiftly took position and set up a command-detonated explosive in a favorable spot along a road the 53 reactionary soldiers took by foot on their way home. The advance team headed by Nonong Salusad met a barrage of gunfire and a grenade lobbed by the Red fighters, immediately followed by the detonation of the explosive device right on the very spot where the main body of the reactionary troops took cover at the onset of the firefight. The 8th IB troops, fresh from their retraining course, suffered heavy casualties.
That night, they took Zaldy Dejos, a Brgy. Cawayan tanod, by force and ordered him to lead the way for them to the Command Post in Purok Pag-asa, Brgy. Salawagan. Barangay officials and Dejos’ family have complained of the reactionary troops’ use of a civilian guide under duress. The residents also complained of the strafing of Ever Ucab, a farmer caught pasturing his carabao near the place of incident. Ucab is yet to recover from the severe trauma he underwent.
Lt. Norman Tagros, 8th IB spokesperson, denies at every turn when confronted with questions by the local media regarding the incident and their casualties. No amount of the 8th IB’s denial can conceal the truth from the eyes of many barriofolks who did not fail to notice the convoy of two ambulances and two military service vehicles secretly parked near the cemetery in Salawagan. The next day, another striped KIA truck carrying a load covered in tarp was seen coming from the Command Post by residents celebrating fiesta in Salawagan. As is always the case, they deny ever committing violation of international humanitarian law in forcing a barangay tanod to guide their troops and in strafing a civilian. Worst of all, they indiscriminately accused the residents of being NPA supporters and blamed them for the harsh beating suffered by their troops.
The 8th IB’s vain justification of their combat operations in the countryside as a measure to ensure the security of the coming barangay elections is blatantly unconvincing. The fact is they are hell-bent at securing the unhampered small-scale gold mining operations of their cuddled berdugo, Butsoy. Peaceful and orderly conduct of any election can only be ensured without the presence of fascist troops.
Only in NPA base areas can there be a truly democratic election where deception, fraud, vote-buying and terrorism are all non-existent. What exist are organs of genuine people’s government in place of the rotten government presently under the reins of the ruling classes.
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Post by dodger on Oct 12, 2013 11:27:22 GMT
16 soldiers killed in a series of NPA-NCMR military actions
October 02, 2013
Spokesperson
NPA North Central Mindanao Regional Operations Command (Julito Tiro Command)
In a span of three days, 16 government soldiers were killed while six others were wounded in a series of military actions by units of the New People’s Army in North Central Mindanao Region. We present here the following details of the incidents:
Sept. 29, 2013, around 6:00 AM – a certain Junjun Versano, an active AFP asset-informer and a notorious bandit from San Isidro, Calabugao, Impasug-ong, Bukidnon, was killed when he resisted arrest carried out by an NPA unit under the Eastern Misamis Oriental-Northeastern Bukidnon (EMONEB) Sub-regional Command. An improvised pistol was seized from him.
Sept. 30, 2013, around 5:00 AM – the same NPA unit harassed the Army-CAA detachment in Km. 30, Brgy. Calabugao.
Sept. 30, 2013 – two encounters ensued in Sitio Camansi, Brgy. Banglay, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental. Around 9:00 AM, a team from another NPA unit under the EMONEB Sub-regional Command sniped the troops of 58th IB in a hot-pursuit operation. One government soldier was wounded in the incident.
At 2:00 PM of the same day, Red fighters employed a command-detonated explosive against a company-size column of the 58th IB in the same area. Ten soldiers were killed while five were wounded. An MG-520 aircraft immediately launched an air attack, indiscriminately firing three rockets, one landed on a stream nearby, the second one blew uphill sitio Camansi and the third one exploded near sitio Tapul immediately sending seventy-three families to evacuate forcibly.
On the other hand, the implementing guerrilla platoon suffered no casualty.
October 1, 2013, around 8:00 AM – an NPA unit harassed the Army-CAA detachment in Hagpa, Impasug-ong, Bukidnon.
October 1, 2013 – another two incidents took place in Sitio Camansi. Around 1:00 PM, Red fighters fired at 58th IB troops caught looting an unoccupied house. Five of these thieving troops were killed. Around 2:00 PM, the Red fighters fired at a responding military helicopter.
Meanwhile, we confirm the earlier report of the 4th ID spokesperson that two of our comrades, Joel “Ka. Jenan” Fajardo and Margie “Ka. Jenjen” Almahan, offered their lives during an encounter with 58th IB troops in Brgy. Busdi, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, September 22, around 8:00 PM. Capt. Christian Uy, however, deliberately omitted the fact that the outnumbered NPA squad fought fiercely a platoon of 8th IB troops, thereby killing three reactionary soldiers. Contrary to Capt. Uy’s malicious accusation that the said NPA unit was carrying out extortion activities, the comrades were performing their political task in educating the masses regarding the adverse effects of the impending establishment of napier grass plantations in the area by big capitalists.
While the propagandists of the reactionary armed forces consistently undermine the advance of the revolutionary movement in the region, the series of NPA offensives and increasing AFP casualties are solid proofs to the intensifying people’s armed resistance. This is our reasonable response to the counterrevolutionary Oplan Bayanihan designed to protect the Aquino government now battered from all sides due to the exposé of the pork barrel scandal, which plundered poor taxpayers’ money, as well as other forms corruption. The regime is now further mired in the quicksand of crisis because its boss, US imperialism, is experiencing a grave financial problem home ground which resulted in the partial shutdown of certain US government offices and institutions. While the people’s war rages, the NPA will launch more offensives against the armed forces rabidly defending the heels of the rotten semi-colonial and semi-feudal system under the puppet US-Aquino regime.
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Post by dodger on Oct 17, 2013 3:02:14 GMT
People’s War surges forward in
Southern Tagalog
The New People’s Army continues to reap victories in the last three months for the People’s War in the Southern Tagalog Region. In Quezon province, the NPA brilliantly maintained military initiative, frustrating the attacks of the mercenary troops of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Meanwhile, NPA units in Rizal province and in the islands of Mindoro and Palawan launched victorious tactical offensives against various enemy units.
The Apolonio Mendoza Command, NPA-Quezon, frustrated the military strike of the 74th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Barangay (village) San Vicente Kanluran, Catanauan, Quezon on 16 September 2013. The Red fighters were conducting their morning exercises when the attack began at 06:55.
When the mercenary troops began shooting, the guerrillas immediately launched defensive maneuvers and fired back against the attackers. The NPA unit was then able to seize the initiative, each team brilliantly fighting back, which caused great damage against the enemy troopers.Seven soldiers were reported to have died in the firefight. No one was injured among the Red fighters and they withdrew safely from the area.
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Post by dodger on Oct 19, 2013 20:03:30 GMT
OCTOBER 19, 2013 Second farmer leader killed in Agusan del Sur
30 1 42 0 By EARL O. CONDEZA Davao Today DAVAO CITY – Unidentified gunmen killed last week a leader of farmers protesting the increased military presence in an interior municipality of Agusan del Sur. He was the second to be killed from the same organization after they evacuated to Davao City to seek public attention to their plight.
The police report was yet to be obtained but the farmers’ organization, Kahugpungan Alang sa Kalambuan sa Kauswagan (Kasaka) in Loreto, Agusan del Sur, identified the slain farmer as Gabriel Alindao, 57, a purok leader and an officer of that organization.
The Kasaka said that on the day he was killed on October 10, Alindao was among the men of Kauswagan village who constructed a military detachment in the place.
Kasaka spokesperson, Marilyn Edgames, said that Alindao was last seen talking to a “Lieutenant Biernes” of the 26th Infantry Battalion in the construction site of a military detachment.
Alindao and five other persons were building the detachment as part of the military’s counterinsurgency “Bayanihan” project, Edgames said.
Kasaka said Alindao was shot near the public school in the barangay center, after he left the construction site to eat his lunch.
The group said witnesses found his body about 20 meters from the school gate at around 12 noon, and he was lying in a pool of blood with bullet shells beside him.
Kasaka said Alindao was its second leader to be killed in a month, after another officer, Benjie Planos, was also hacked and shot dead last September 13 in his farm in Kauswagan.
Edgames said Alindao was active in the community’s cacao nursery project and a “responsible Kasaka member”.
Edgames said they are pressing their demand to pull out the military from their community, which her group believed was in their area to prepare for the entry of a foreign palm oil investment that covers Loreto.
A blog entry from a Loreto information staff said the British New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBOL) is said to be planning to invest in Loreto as part of its 36,000 hectare-expansion in Asia.
“Ang mga langyawng kapitalista kaubanan ang local na panggamhanan, ginabuhat gyud ang tanan aron mailog lang ang among yuta, kabalo man ta na bahandianon kini (Foreign capitalists together with local government is doing everything just to get our lands, we know that this land is rich in resources),” she added.
Alindao’s body was brought to Davao City where he would be buried this weekend.
In an ecumenical service led by Karapatan, the group’s spokesperson Pastor Jurie Jayme said that “there is an unsigned Memorandum of Agreement between the armed forces of the Philippines and Kasaka. The military now must face this incident including the case of Benjie Planos. They must bring back the trust of the people to them.” (Earl O. Condeza, Reposted by (http://bulatlat.com)) - See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/10/19/second-farmer-leader-killed-in-agusan-del-sur/#sthash.cs20Flss.dpuf |
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Post by dodger on Oct 21, 2013 13:52:06 GMT
9 soldiers believed killed in NPA ambush in North Cotabato
By Frances Mangosing INQUIRER.net 4:30 pm | Monday, October 21st, 2013 MANILA, Philippines – Nine government troops were killed and four were wounded in a landmine attack by suspected New People’s Army in North Cotabato on Monday, the military said.
“The first attack occurred at the boundary of Caridad and Bituan villages in Tulunan town at 9:20 a.m., when troops of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion delivering subsistence allowance to auxiliary forces were landmined,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said.
This triggered a firefight where seven government troops were killed and one was wounded.
Shortly after, two soldiers were killed and three others were wounded from the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion in a landmine explosion while they were on their way to New Caridad village also in Tulunan town at 11:20a.m.
One of the two soldiers later died in the hospital.
Six of the nine fatalities were soldiers, while the three were militiamen.
“We are still in pursuit operations against the ambushers,” Lt. Nasrullah Sema, speaking for the 57th Infantry Battalion based in Makilala, North Cotabato, said in an interview by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “Our reports are very sketchy at this time.”
“We are sad because the soldiers were carrying huge amount of money as honorarium of our CAFGUs (Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit) in the area,” Sema added.
Civilians in the area said the armed men took a huge bag believed to be the money for CAFGUs allowances and several firearms.
The NPA is operating in the boundary of Davao del Sur and North Cotabato. With reports from Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/511369/7-soldiers-believed-killed-in-npa-ambush-in-north-cotabato#ixzz2iMdJZp8S Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
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Post by dodger on Oct 22, 2013 4:31:45 GMT
Suspected NPA rebels raid oil palm plantation in Cotabato, execute chief guard
By WILLIAMOR A. MAGBANUAOctober 22, 2013 7:44am
ARAKAN, Cotabato —Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Monday morning raided an oil palm plantation and seized high-powered firearms in Bgy. Gambudes in Arakan, Cotabato.
At least 10 firearms were confiscated by the rebels from the plantation's security guards.
The incident took place a few hours after members of the 72nd and 73rd fronts of the NPA killed nine soldiers in the towns of Tulunan and Makilala.
Alejandro Canete, the village chief, said suspected NPA rebels swooped down the village and raided the oil palm plantation owned by businessman and former municipal councilor Saturnino Amatac of Matalam town in Cotabato.
Amatac’s oil palm plantation is estimated to be at least 300 hectares.
Canete disclosed that the rebels overpowered the plantation guards led by former Army Sgt. Glenn Arreola.
The rebels then brought Arreola in the village where he was publicly executed.
The 53rd Front of the NPA operating in the said town has not yet issued an official statement owning up to the raid. —KG, GMA News
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3 G's....yes 3'G's'....gold, guns and goons. The open secret of any politicians success at the polls and maintaining it through generations. Well 10 less guns and now a goon short. High powered rifles too, enough to arm an undersized partizan platoon. From now on ...if they have not learned their lesson the goons will have to face being fired on by their own rifles. Communist rebels have been accused of publicly executing the chief security officer of a palm oil plantation in Arakan town, North Cotabato Monday, the same day nine government troops were killed in twin ambushes in the same province.The rebels reportedly accused Ariola of abuses against poor farmers within the almost 300-hectare plantation owned by a former politician from Matalam town, also in North Cotabato.
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Post by dodger on Oct 23, 2013 1:04:34 GMT
www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20131021_61st-ib-suffered-many-casualties-in-the-recent-attacks-of-the-npa61st IB suffered many casualties in the recent attacks of the NPAOctober 21, 2013 NPA Central Panay Front Operations Command
(Jose Percival Estocada Command)Six were killed and not less than three were wounded from the troops of 61st IB, PA in the two succeeding ambushes launched by the units of the NPA under the Jose Percival Estocada, Jr. Command, Central Panay in the town of Tapaz, Capiz last October 7 and 9, 2013.
The first ambush happened in Panay river in the boundaries of Barangays Nawayan and Tacayan around 6:45am while a 15-man unit of the Alpha Company were passing the banks of the river. In the first burst of fire, seven fascist soldiers were immediately hit and fell into the Panay River with their fire arms. Six of them died.
The second ambush happened in Sitio Malangsa, Barangay Abangay, past 1:00 in the afternoon while the troops of Bravo Company were marching to reinforce. Two fascist troops were wounded.
The pretentions of the 61st IB that they are protectors of human rights were laid bare when they strafed the houses of the Tumanduk people in Barangay Nayawan that killed Pastor Mirasol and wounded Rolando Diaz, Sr., both farmers. They also beat up Dario Gilbaliga, a pastor, and Ered Gilbaliga an old man and also a barangay official from Abangay, accusing them of being part of the unit that conducted the ambush. Henry Diaz, of Nayawan, was also beaten while on the way home after accompanying his child to school in the adjacent barangay of Tacayan a few days after the incident.
Out of shame, Maj. Rey Tiongson, spokesperson of the 3rd ID, PA denied that they have many casualties and even claimed that Pastor Mirasol and Rolando Diaz, Sr. were members of the NPA. It may be recalled that a few months back, the officials of 3rd Infantry Division, PA proudly declared that the NPA in Central Panay is weakening because of many of its members has surrendered and are losing the support of the masses.
These two successful ambushes launched by the red fighters is their response to the strong opposition of the Tumanduk people to the construction of two mega dams in the rivers of Jalaur and Panay and to exact justice for the many crimes and violations of human rights of the 61st IB, PA.#
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Post by dodger on Oct 24, 2013 21:31:06 GMT
Ka Mely and Ka Dado: Portraits of life and struggle in Negros
The lives of husband and wife Ka Dado and Ka Mely reflect the feudal and semifeudal conditions in Negros and the bright future offered by the revolutionary movement.
Ka Dado hails from the poor peasantry. He and his family, from his grandfather in the 1950s were tenants on a hacienda. While still a child, he was already helping his father in the fields and was never able to go to school. The tersyuhan system was in force then, where the haciendero acquired one-third of the harvest without any contribution, whether in the form of labor or expenses. When the haciendero decided to shift to planting commercial bamboo in 1990, he took back the land from the tenants without even compensating them for their crops. From then on, Ka Dado’s family became farm workers in the hacienda.
Ka Mely, on the other hand, grew up in a sugarcane plantation. At the tender age of ten years, she began working as a farm laborer in the sugarcane fields whenever school was out. Sometimes, as early as Friday, she would accompany her father and siblings working. She started out with a daily wage of P1.50 in 1973, which rose to P3.00 by the time she was 14.
Work in the sugarcane fields is back-breaking. At 6 a.m., you had to report to the enkargado (labor gang foreman) so you could be given work. If you came late, there wouldn’t be any work for you because there was a long line of farm workers looking for jobs. In clearing a field, you were assigned a heras or a strip 30 meters long and one meter wide that you had to finish in a day. You had to work from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you couldn’t finish the work, you would have to come back the day after and do it without pay," added Ka Mely.
Ka Mely went on describing how hard the work was. In applying fertilizer, they were paid one peso per bag. They could use up as many as 50 bags, but that was without taking any breaks. In cutting sugarcane and loading the cane aboard the trucks, the pay was 5 centavos per hapnig (a load of 20 pieces of cut cane) in the 1970s.
Nowadays, the pay is P200 to P300 per ton, with the wage given per gang of laborers. A group of cane cutters and loaders would fill a truck with cut cane and the cargo is weighed at the sugar mill. This is the heaviest work of all in the sugarcane fields. Women receive only half of what the men are paid because they are not strong enough to load cane onto the trucks.
The wage for pagpamatdan or cutting cane for planting is P50 per thousand and P300 per thousand for planting sugarcane, although it is impossible to finish this number in a day.
“Our life as sakada’(sugarcane farm worker) has been very hard, especially so when we were not yet organized and had not yet taken any action to demand higher wages and benefits. The work is back-breaking, but there are no benefits. If you got sick, you couldn’t work, you had no food and couldn’t seek medical attention. You had to report to work feeling weak. The pay is not enough, even for those without families to support. This is why even children are obliged to work,” said the couple.
The group of farm workers that Ka Mely belonged to were organized in 1980. She became a mass leader of their association and actively fought for their democratic rights, such as higher wages for farm workers. While she fully valued the open mass movement, their experience has taught her its defensive character in the face of the violence of the reactionary state, which advances the interests of the landlord class.
At that time, she had a brother and a number of cousins who had already become contacts of the New People’s Army (NPA) and were later convinced to join it. Ka Mely had also joined the underground movement in the cities and later worked fulltime. In 1993, she answered the call to hie to the countryside, where she was able to use her skills as a mass leader in the urban areas.
Meanwhile, in 1985, the NPA began expanding towards Ka Dado’s village. But the Red fighters still could not visit their barrio very often. Nonetheless, Ka Dado’s elder brother assiduously helped in organizing the masses and eventually joined the NPA. Whenever he visited the family, Ka Dado and his brother would have long and serious discussions about his experiences in the people’s army. In 1992, Ka Dado decided to become a Red fighter. His brother has since joined the ranks of revolutionary martyrs from Negros.
In the NPA, Ka Dado and Ka Mely became members of the same collective for years before they became sweethearts and eventually married in 2000. In their two decades within the people’s army and working among the farmers and farm workers, they have come to grasp that the genuine liberation of the peasantry and the entire people relies on the advance of the revolutionary strength of the people and the people’s army.
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Post by dodger on Oct 24, 2013 21:38:24 GMT
Bungkalan in Negros
Severe poverty, hunger and unrest stalk the masses of farm workers in sugarcane fields and workers in the sugar mills of Negros.
They receive extremely low wages and are bereft of all benefits due to the enforcement of contractualization and the system of gang labor (pakyawan) in the haciendas. They are mired in debt, with their next wage not enough to pay them off. Their children are obliged to work at an early age to augment the family’s meager income. Their poverty pushes them to fight for their right to a small plot of land to till in order to feed their families. The widespread lack of land to till and the system of slave labor in the sugarcane fields are driving thousands of farmers in Negros to struggle and directly lay claim to the land.
The vacant lots collectively tilled by the peasants are called “land cultivation areas” in Negros and bungkalan (or collectively tilled areas) elsewhere in the country.
From a few organized assertions to till land in 2008, the movement has spread like a prairie fire. In fact, as early as the 1980s, there have already been sporadic moves to advance the right to till. Currently, there are more than 86 plots of land comprising more than 2,100 hectares being collectively tilled and administered by a farm workers’ organization. The plots are planted to rice, corn and other food crops for more than 2,500 peasant families in Negros.
The LCAs are all “CARPable” lands. Instead of distributing the land, however, the landlords have slapped the farmers with criminal charges and fascist suppression for exercising their right under reactionary law.
Semifeudal mode
The sharpest class conflicts between the landlord class and the peasantry can be found in Negros, where the hacienda system of sugarcane plantations began as far back as the time of the Spanish colonialists.
Out of Negros’ 1.3 million-hectare land area, 818,991 hectares or 63% are privately owned. Up to 80% of private lands (or 655,193 hectares) are in the hands of only 24% of people who own at least ten hectares. The remaining 163,798 hectares are divided among 76% of landowners owning ten hectares or lower. Meanwhile, the farm workers who create the wealth of the haciendas do not own any land. This persistent and deeply rooted land monopoly exacerbates landlessness among the peasantry.
On top of this, the monocrop system of planting sugarcane exclusively effectively shuts the door to any opportunity of finding alternative work, causing generations of farm workers to be bound by the system of slave labor in the sugarcane plantations.
The despotic landlords and the reactionary state that represents them are very apprehensive about the peasants’ collective action to acquire land to till. Aside from the landlords’ armed goons, Negros has been declared a national priority under Oplan Bantay Laya 2 (2008) and the current Oplan Bayanihan. The courts and no less than the law on CARPER have been invoked to charge peasants with crimes such as trespassing whenever they begin tilling land; arson when they burn grass to prepare the land for planting; theft when they harvest their crops; and so many other trumped-up cases.
Advance genuine land reform
The revolutionary movement recognizes the justness and legitimacy of the farm workers’ struggle for land to till. It is their basic right to be given livelihood opportunities and employment security. The revolutionary movement salutes their courage and initiative in taking action in the face of the criminalization of their struggle and their violent suppression by the military and the landlords’ armed mercenaries.
The revolutionary movement supports their initiative and encourages them to intensify their struggle for genuine land reform. They must further focus their struggle on gradually smashing the economic and political power of the landlord class. They are encouraged to join the armed struggle as the only means of advancing their struggle and completely ending feudal and semifeudal exploitation.
They must be vigilant about forces or groups that want to put a stop to their initiatives and keep them within the framework of bourgeois law which favors the big landlords. They must expand and deepen their consciousness regarding class conflict and oppose the legalism, economism and reformism of groups opposed to genuine land reform.
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Post by dodger on Oct 24, 2013 21:41:29 GMT
Aryendo system in Negros
The problem of land monopoly in the island of Negros has worsened due to the proliferation of the aryendo system. Under this system, new landlords have emerged and the landholdings of old landlords expanded.
The aryendo system in Negros involves peasants leasing out their small parcels of land to hacienderos or other people with capital. Each hectare of land is usually leased out for P1,000 per year on a three-year contract. Most of those who lease out their lands are CARP “beneficiaries” who find it difficult to raise capital for planting sugarcane.
Because of loss of income, they are obliged to borrow money repeatedly from their lessors until they find themselves deep in debt. To pay back their debts, the small farmers are forced to sell the land they had leased out, usually to the lessors who they are indebted to. This system has led to the emergence of a new crop of landlords.
There are also big landlords who have been able to use this system to expand their landholdings. Hacienderos usually lease parcels of land that are adjacent to their estates. A striking case is that of Mayo Cueva, a landlord who used the aryendo system to circumvent CARP. In connivance with DAR, Cueva came up with a list of fake beneficiaries who he claimed had leased their lands to big landlord Alfredo Marañon, Negros Occidental governor and Cueva’s relative. This way, Marañon was able to expand his land while maintaining an arrangement granting Cueva actual ownership and control over the land.
The farmers who were actually on Cueva’s land have exposed and thoroughly opposed this arrangement. At present, they have been able to occupy and till the land but face criminal cases filed against them by the hacienderos.
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