Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Insurgency: Oplan Delta

Those dastardly terrorists who make up the CPP-NPA-NDF have a new operation in the works. It is so unbelievably wicked that NTF-ELCAC spokeswoman cannot actually give the proof though she swears she has it. The operation is called Oplan Delta. The goal? To smear members of the NTF-ELCAC.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1146048

Knowing their early demise is inevitable, the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) created ‘Oplan Delta’, a series of slanderous attacks targeting National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokespersons.

During the NTF-ELCAC regular virtual press conference, Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, NTF-ELCAC spokesperson on Social Media and Sectoral Concerns, said an intelligence report indicates Oplan Delta was hatched recently in Quezon City by National United Front Commission (NUFC) head Nathaniel Santiago of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Other high ranking party members of the communist terrorist groups (CTGs) like Maria Sol Taule who acts as a lawyer for NPAs and the party-list group KARAPATAN participated in the meeting according to the intel report.

Badoy added that a committee was formed against each NTF ELCAC spokesperson to spread propaganda and “to create the most outrageous lies with the goal of inflicting the most damage on the spokesperson assigned to that committee in a bid to destroy our credibility”.

“The committees in charge of me, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., Undersecretary Joel Egco and Atty. Marlon Bosantog were under special instructions to intensify their black propaganda and demolition jobs on us because they suspect we will be running for public office in next year’s elections,” Badoy said.

Esperon said all the NTF-ELCAC spokesperson and personnel are ready for any slanderous attacks.

“They have run out of reasons, and therefore, ang masasabi ko lang ay merong sense of desperation sa parte nila (I can sense of desperation on their part). Let it be, let it be. Nakahanda naman tayo diyan (We are ready),” he added.

Jeffrey Celiz, a former CPP-NPA-NDF official for 21 years who goes by the name of Ka Eric Almendras, also confirmed that the plot by the CPP-NPA-NDF to demonize the NTF ELCAC spokespersons -- as revealed by Badoy -- is true.

Celiz said this is based on the terrorists’ history and capability to destroy government leaders, as well as the entire government.

Badoy, meanwhile, said among the agreements reached were the “gathering and dissemination of information by all front organizations -- particularly the law firm of terrorists -- KARAPATAN, about NTF- ELCAC officials with the express goal of besmirching our reputations in order to discredit the Task Force.”

All these poisons emanate from the CPP-NPA-NDF Central Committee that issued a memo entitled ‘PADUGUIN SA LIBONG SUGAT ANG PASISTANG REHIMENG DUTERTE! ILUNSAD SA BUONG BANSA ANG PARAMING TAKTIKAL NA OPENSIBA” calling for an intensified tactical offensive across the country to specifically target the NTF-ELCAC and its officials. Hand in hand with that memo is the deployment of their murder squads -- sparrow units targeting NTF-ELCAC officials,” Badoy said.

“And if you think that the threats on our lives are going to stop us from shining the glaring light of truth on each of you, you are so wrong on so many levels and ways that I don’t even know where to begin telling you how wrong you are. We have married our destinies with the job of putting an end to the grievous harm and suffering you have caused our people. Death is a small price to pay to seeing our country finally free of this 52-year terrorist scourge,” she added.

Badoy said the task force has evidence to prove the existence of the Oplan Delta.

“If the other side, the CPP-NPA-NDF, deny the existence of this ‘Oplan Delta,’ I challenge them. I challenge Maria Sol Taule and Nathaniel Santiago, to deny the existence of this plan, because we have incontrovertible proof about it,” she said.

So, the CPP-NPA-NDF, "knowing their early demise is inevitable," is going to waste its time slandering government officials instead of, you know, making one last push for power by launching a series of deadly attacks against important infrastructure or officials? Badoy claims she has "incontrovertible proof about it" but refuses to show us. She claims this new plan stems from a memo titled, "PADUGUIN SA LIBONG SUGAT ANG PASISTANG REHIMENG DUTERTE! ILUNSAD SA BUONG BANSA ANG PARAMING TAKTIKAL NA OPENSIBA" which specifically targets "the NTF-ELCAC and its officials." But that is not true. Here is the document in English.

https://cpp.ph/statements/make-the-duterte-fascist-regime-bleed-from-a-thousand-cuts-mount-more-tactical-offensives-nationwide/

The Party calls on all NPA units to vigorously wage revolutionary armed struggle in all parts of the country by way of response to the brazen fascism, massive corruption and squandering of people’s money and national treachery of the tyrannical Duterte regime. The NPA must heed the Filipino people’s clamor for justice. The Party leadership has directed all commands of the NPA to mount more frequent tactical offensives, and mobilize its companies, platoons and squads. Use all possible types of weapons—from rifles and command-detonated explosives, to spears and punji sticks—against the enemy. The NPA must make the tyrant bleed from a thousand cuts and punish the fascists for all their crimes.

All NPA units should mount ambushes, harassments, demolitions, raids, sniping operations and other tactical offensives against the most notorious units of the AFP, counterguerrilla units of the PNP and their paramilitary groups. They must avoid hitting at hard targets and aim at the weak and isolated units of the enemy, and at all times, avoid situations that could put civilians at risk of getting caught in the crossfire. The NPA must also temporarily dispatch partisan teams in the cities and town centers to strike at military transport and communication systems, ;and carry out the orders of duly-authorized people’s courts to arrest or punish fascist officers, plunderers and despotic bureaucrat capitalists and landlords who are wanted for crimes against the people.

The NPA must also intensify armed resistance against the expansion of anti-people mining, logging, plantation, energy and tourism operations which dispossess and displace the peasant and minority masses.

In particular, the revolutionary movement must take effort to frustrate plans of the Duterte regime to allow the further expansion of Chinese companies, especially those involved in the construction of seven Chinese military bases and in the plunder and destruction of Philippine marine resources in the West Philippine Sea in violation of Philippine sovereignty. Some of these same Chinese companies are involved in some big-ticket infrastructure projects for the construction of mining roads and dams that are encroaching deeper and deeper into the ancestral lands of the national minorities and forests in various parts of the country. These infrastructure projects not only displace thousands of peasants and minorities from their lands, they also wreak havoc to the natural ecosystem of the country’s remaining forests.

There is absolutely nothing in this document about smearing government officials. Not one word of that but plenty about launching tactical offensives against various military targets. Badoy says that Oplan Delta emanates from this document. But where is the genesis of it and what would the CPP-NPA gain by smearing NTF-ELCAC officials? 

Former CPP-NPA member Jeffery Celiz says he knows the plan is true "based on the terrorists’ history and capability to destroy government leaders, as well as the entire government." But hold on! First of all the man claims to have left the CPP-NPA in either 2008 or 2015. So how does he know anything about what is currently going on within the CPP-NPA?

Second of all Celiz contradicts the government narrative about the demise of the CPP-NPA-NDF being imminent by saying that they have the "capability to destroy government leaders, as well as the entire government." According to Celiz not only do they have the capability to destroy the entire government but they have a whole network embedded within society to make this happen.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1146171

The operations of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) to recruit and radicalize more members is "comparable to an octopus with many tentacles", a former rebel said.

Jeffrey Celiz, also known as Ka Eric Almendras in the communist terrorist group (CTG), said the CTGs put up the National Organizations Department (NOD) to infiltrate and radicalize various sectors such as the youth, women, industry workers, urban poor, transport, and even the government.

"NOD is a central committee staff organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines at dyan po nagmumula ang (and that's the start of) organizing and recruitment, infiltration, radicalization both above ground and underground," Celiz said during Monday's regular press conference "Debunking lies by telling the truth" of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Celiz said the NOD is responsible for luring people from rural areas, central towns, universities, religious groups, media, and other professionals to join the communist revolution.

The CPP-NPA-NDF also has an international department which is maneuvered by CPP founding chair Jose Maria "Joma" Sison himself, he said.

"Iyan ay mayroong humigit-kumulang 47 years of existence abroad. Diyan nagtatago sila Joma Sison at iyan din po ang kumukumpas ng mga peace talks sa (It has been more or less 47 years of existence abroad. That's where Joma Sison is hiding at and it's the one demanding for peace talks) abroad and infiltrating overseas Filipino workers and Filipino communities," he added.

The National Military Commission (NMC), he said, is responsible for the operational command and attacks by NPA rebels across the country.

The NMC organizes mass actions and stages rallies in urban and far-flung communities while the national propaganda and cultural commission is handled directly by the Communist Party Central Committee.

"Nandirito po ang kanilang mga pagmi-maintain ng pangalan na (It involves maintaining the name) Marco Valbuena. In fact, Marco Valbuena is just a name, it’s not a person. Marami pong gumagamit ng pangalan na iyan sa ilalim ng (Several individuals are using that name under the) CPP information bureau. It’s an alias being used by at least three (persons)," Celiz said, noting that Sison himself is hiding under the name to communicate with CTGs.

"So, they are very organized like a big criminal syndicate. This is a national finance extortionist unit. The NPA also has a unit involved in burning, explosions, attacking businesses and politicians, and even targeting big companies such as telecommunications firms," he said.

The CTGs likewise established the national tax implementing group and the national peasant commission that conspire with the land grabbers.

There is also the National United Front Commission responsible for mass actions involving the middle class, media operations infiltration, lawyers, campaign for party-list groups, and non-governmental organization operations.

Celiz said the CPP-NPA-NDF is expanding toward infiltrating "government rank and file workers, the academe, teachers, and even health professionals in public hospitals.

"We are confronting an enemy no matter how maybe small their numbers, compared to our government bureaucracy organization, but they have the capability to sabotage, subvert, and undermine our way of life in a democratic system, even able to maximize legal processes and democratic processes such as elections," he said.

Celiz is describing an organization that is far from "knowing their early demise is inevitable." This is the man the NTF-ELCAC has touted as an expert in all things CPP-NPA-NDF as he was allegedly a member for 27 years. And he is painting a very different picture from that of the NTF-ELCAC and the AFP. Why does he say one thing and the government another? Who is correct? Why should the public trust any of these people?

It is the AFP who has been caught spreading propaganda and fake news with their red-tagging. AFP intel Chief Maj. Gen. Alex Luna was axed for this very thing. NTF-ELCAC spokesman Lorraine Badoy is no stranger to fake news having sowed much online against Sen. Pacquiao and VP RobredoBadoy accused Robredo of spreading fake news but when asked for specifics she could not give an answer.

At the same hearing, Badoy said Vice President Leni Robredo was one of the “primary purveyors of fake news,” painting a gloomy picture of the country to reflect poorly on President Rodrigo Duterte.

When pressed to give an example, however, Badoy could not cite a specific instance, saying only that she painted “a gloomy picture” of the country when she spoke before an international audience.

Badoy later qualified that what she said about Robredo was her “personal opinion.”

https://manilastandard.net/news/national/257569/pcoo-usec-owns-up-to-fake-news-on-pacquiao.html

Badoy has a proven track record of being a liar. Why on earth would anyone trust her? 

But perhaps she is right about this. Perhaps there is a coordinated campaign by the CPP-NPA-NDF to smear the NTF-ELCAC and government officials. Could this article in the Inquirer be a part of that smear campaign?

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1457763/p9-7b-for-npa-free-villages-pouring-in-regions-with-most-ejks

The Duterte administration has opened the valve to a gush of taxpayer money to fund villages supposedly successful in keeping communist rebels out but in regions where a human rights group said cases of extrajudicial killings and other rights violations were highest.

In a recent announcement, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the agency in charge of implementing so-called barangay development projects designed to beat the insurgency, said at least 99 percent, or P16.24 billion, of P16.44 billion had already been released.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, a former military general, said 822 villages, or barangays, received the funds for at least 2,276 projects.

The villages, he said, had already been “cleared of communist terrorist groups,” the government’s term of endearment for New People’s Army (NPA) and its political arm Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

But a closer look by the human rights group Karapatan showed that the bigger allocations went to areas in regions where cases of rights violations were highest.

Data shared by Karapatan, which had been red-tagged by officials led by President Rodrigo Duterte himself, five regions with the biggest funding from the so-called barangay development program were those with the highest number of killings and legally infirm arrests.

According to Ano, the top five regions in terms of amounts of taxpayer money received were Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccskargen and Caraga.

These regions also happen to have the highest cases of EJKs and legally infirm arrests of activists from July 2016 to March 2021:

  • Davao—56 EJKs, 84 legally infirm arrests
  • Northern Mindanao—24 EJKs, 58 legally infirm arrests
  • Western Visayas—51 EJKs, 56 legally infirm arrests
  • Soccskargen—38 EJKs, 34 legally infirm arrests
  • Caraga—30 EJKs, 30 legally infirm arrests

According to Marco Valbuena, information officer of Communist Party of the Philippines, out of the 822 villages, or barangays, that have been declared by the government as cleared of insurgents, 50 were sites of clashes between guerrillas and government forces from January 2020 to middle of June 2021.

In the Ilocos region, two villages that had been declared as clear of insurgents were places where communist rebels never operated, Valbuena said.

At least 52 villages out of the 822 might have been wrongly reported as insurgency-free just to access at least P1 billion in funds from the counterinsurgency program being supervised by the NTF-Elcac, he said.

“The AFP’s cleared category is problematic,” Valbuena said. “The people’s war is a fluid war,” he said.

“The NPA is a guerrilla army which can move in and out of areas,” the rebel spokesperson said.

Is this all propaganda or is this factual? Is it factual but misinterpreted? The government will say EJKs do not exist and that those whom government forces detained or killed did so in legitimate operations as well as accuse Karaptan of being a CPP-NPA front

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1146609

“The selection of 822 barangays to receive BDP funds underwent a thorough validation process participated by different stakeholders, particularly the people from the concerned barangays. These barangays share a common history, being exploited or subjected to abuses and deception by the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines - New People’s Army),” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a message to the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

“The claims of Karapatan are mere allegations and speculations that had never been substantiated in any judicial court or in any official investigation. This so-called EJK has never been a policy of this government. It is not surprising for Karapatan to make these unfounded allegations because everyone knows the true color of Karapatan,” he added.

This is a typical response from the government. They don't actually rebut any of the data Karapatan actually presented. Instead of discussing the alleged EJKs he brushes it off saying such a thing has never been proven in a court of law as if a thing has to be proven in a court of law for it to be true. Año also does not discuss that allegation that 50 of the allegedly cleared villages were sites of clashes between the NPA and AFP.

Karapatan's data that 50 out of 822 allegedly cleared villages were sites of clashes between January 2020 and June 2021is the most interesting thing here. Two of the 822 villages never had NPA influence to begin with. If true that is certainly problematic. But I have reported here in several articles that the AFP's method of declaring areas as insurgent free is problematic and that areas once declared cleared have seen a resurgence of NPA fighters.

“Insurgency-free”, according to Luga, means that they have received no more reports of armed men in the province. 
Insignificant level. Wala na rito ang mga armed groups,” Luga said during the recent meeting of the Regional Peace and Order Council held at the Capitol Social Ha

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2019/09/martial-law-insurgent-free.html

Perhaps this article is part of Oplan Delta.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/10/21/rights-group-wants-chr-to-block-parlade-retirement

In a letter to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), human rights alliance Karapatan urged the government body to withhold clearances for the retirement of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. 

According to Karapatan, Parlade "deserves no graceful exit" for his "rabid" red tagging that endangered the lives of several individuals.

"A rabid red-tagger like Antonio Parlade Jr. deserves no graceful exit... Allowing Parlade to walk away scot-free amid the pending cases against him... would be tantamount to impunity. We ask the CHR to withhold clearances for Parlade," Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.  

Karapatan on Friday said it submitted a letter to CHR chairperson Chito Gascon asking the body "to withhold clearances for Parlade," citing a provision in the CHR’s Citizen’s Handbook. 

"[A]ccording to the CHR’s Citizen’s Handbook, the Commission holds the function and mandate to issue clearances to military or police officers, among others, regarding their records of human rights violations or those with pending resolution of human rights violations," the letter said.  

In a statement sent to ABS-CBN News, CHR deputy spokesperson Marc Louis Siapno explained that their capacity to issue clearances to security personnel is limited to "purposes of training, schooling or deployment overseas with international partners, as well as for promotions and confirmation within the armed services."  

"[T]he CHR clearance procedure has not thus far been included as a mandatory requirement by the security sector for retirement purposes," Siapno said.  

Page 11 of the CHR's Citizen's Charter said "[c]ertifications are issued for their promotions, nominations, confirmations, schooling (both local and abroad), as requirement for their United Nations Mission, travel abroad, retirement and other similar purposes." 

Siapno said the CHR now wants to expand the coverage of their clearance powers. 

"For this purpose, we encourage expansion of the clearance procedure to cover areas that will ensure compliance with the highest human rights standards for all duty-bearers." 

This could very well be evidence of Oplan Delta. Karapatan says they want the CHR to withhold any clearance certificate from Paralde upon his retirement because he has engaged in red-tagging. But the CHR says such a certificate is not mandatory. That means Karapatan's request is pointless and just for show. But not to be outdone the CHR says they are requesting that their powers be expanded so that such a clearance becomes mandatory.

Even if Oplan Delta is real slandering officials of the NTF-ELCAC is hardly something they should be worrying about. Instead the AFP should be focused on countering the many tactical offenses planned in  last year's CPP memo.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1458640/pnp-places-northern-samar-on-high-alert-after-separate-npa-attacks

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday placed local authorities in Northern Samar on high alert following alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) carried out separate attacks.

This order came after suspected NPA rebels killed a soldier and barangay captain in separate incidents in northern Samar.

Meanwhile, PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar condemned the attacks, even described the perpetrators as terrorists.

(These terrorists will definitely stop at nothing to sow chaos and violence in our communities in their desire to show that their force is still strong. They try to cover up the fact that they are weak and have no support for their futile efforts to advance their armed struggle.)

(It is infuriating that the CPP-NPA is targeting innocent civilians in their attacks. Because no one believes in their deception and propaganda anymore.)

The PNP is looking at this all wrong. As Jeffery Celiz says the NPA has "the capability to destroy government leaders, as well as the entire government." Perhaps the AFP and PNP should stop dismissing the NPA as being weak and focus on destroying them.

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