This week Eastmincom says surrenders among the NPA are up because of their relentless OPs.
Eastern Mindanao Command’s (EastMinCom) relentless operations against the Communist Terrorist Group, as directed by Commander LtGen. Greg T. Almerol, elicited a spike in surrender as 11 more communist terrorists capitulated while troops also seized high-powered firearms and explosives on separate incidents.
LtGen. Almerol said that the surrenderers belong to the CTG’s Far South Mindanao Region (FSMR) and Sub-Regional Committee 3 of North Central Mindanao Regional Committee (SRC3, NCMRC) who capitulated on December 5 and 7, respectively.
“We will never stop until the remaining CTG members are neutralized. We are determined more than ever to capture them that is why I urge them to surrender peacefully instead of continuing to evade our forces,” LtGen. Almerol said.
“The level of determination that our troops in Eastern Mindanao have since the beginning never wavered. Our men are strong and resolute in ending the local communist armed conflict in the country and finally pave way for unhampered development” LtGen. Almerol added.
LtGen. Almerol added that troops are also cultivating a culture of cooperation with the Philippine National Police, the populace, and the Local Government Units (LGU) in support of the whole-of-nation approach as ordered by Executive Order 70, the national's campaign in ending the local communist armed conflict.
Has Eastmincom not been cooperating with the PNP or vice versa until recently? It is certainly better if NPA fighters surrender so they can avail of the government's bribery program. Of course that is a burden on law abiding tax payers but that isn't stopping the NTF-ELCAC from gripping on to their funds.
By slashing the budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) by PHP10.8 billion, lawmakers have shown that they are not true public servants.
NTF-ELCAC Spokesperson for Sectoral Concerns Lorraine Marie Badoy made this statement after Congress set the 2022 budget of the NTF-ELCAC at PHP17.1 billion, PHP10.8 billion lower compared to the PHP28.1 billion earlier proposed by Malacañang.
Badoy, also Undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), said slashing the NTF-ELCAC budget would adversely affect the government’s Barangay Development Program (BDP) which aims to provide insurgency-cleared villages funds for projects that would improve their quality of life.
“(NTF-ELCAC regrets the bicameral committee's ruthless slashing of the task force's budget that would have provided services to the 1,406 poorest cleared barangays in the Philippines),” she said in a press statement.
She slammed lawmakers for being “deaf” to the appeals made by President Rodrigo Duterte and local chief executives to reconsider their decision to slash the NTF-ELCAC budget.
“(Instead of listening to the pleas of local chief executives that share the same sentiment not to cut the fund that will provide farm-to-market roads, health centers, schools, the bicameral committee is deaf and slashed almost half of the budget of NTF-ELCAC),” she said.
“(They just shrugged when our President asked them to return to the PHP28 billion the cut budget),” she added.
Badoy said the lawmakers have only proved that they cannot be trusted for denying communities "freed" from the influence of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) from receiving much-needed assistance.
Meanwhile, Badoy blamed senators for supposedly “conspiring” with members of the CPP-NPA-NDF with their decision to cut the NTF-ELCAC’s budget.
“(This plague lasted for so long not only because of the CPP-NPA-NDF but also because of the politicians who were conspiring with them),” she said.
While communities have to bear the brunt of the NTF-ELCAC budget slash, she said this move will only make communist rebels happy.
“(Only one group is happy and a winner here and these are the butchers who have caused hardship and grief in the past 52 years: the communist terrorist CPP NPA NDF),” she said.
Lorraine Badoy is a particularly disgusting partisan bureaucrat who was not elected by anybody. If anyone is not a true public servant it is Lorraine Badoy. With her small brain it is not odd that she does not realize that TERRORISTS should not be bribed to surrender. No one is against development in the nation. In fact this should be ongoing and the proper protection provided so that the NPA does not burn or otherwise destroy equipment. It is a shame that there are millions without paved roads, electricity, and clean water. One cannot blame that on the NTF-ELCAC which was only recently formed.
This year marks the 53rd year of the Communist rebellion. That is rather insane. The government says that the Reds have accomplished absolutely nothing but have left a long trail of blood. But what does the CPP-NPA have to say for themselves?
The civil war in the Philippines, home to the world’s longest communist insurgency, has been raging for the past 53 years. Since the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was founded in 1968, followed by its guerrillas in 1969, the Philippine government has been in a perennial conflict with the communists. At the height of the pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte singled out the insurrection as the country’s top conundrum.
While the conflict itself evokes many questions about both sides, the communists ironically have shown more will than the Philippine bureaucracy to rule the country.
“Red areas,” or areas of political power in the countryside, have been delineated by the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), where they say the reach of state forces is the weakest. In these areas, peasant masses are most exploited and more sympathetic to the cause of rebellion.
Jose Ma. Sison, founding chairperson of the CPP, told The News Lens,“CPP cadres and NPA units have been organizing as local organs of political power (people’s committees of self-government), the barrio organizing committees, and barrio revolutionary committees.”
Bobby Tuazon, professor of the University of the Philippines and policy director of the Center for People’s Empowerment in Governance or CenPEG, believes that the rebels root itself in the rejection of the authority of the current Philippine bureaucracy driven by “landlords and comprador-capitalists” as the revolutionaries say.
“The armed revolutionary movement in the countryside has long-established some kind of a shadow government or revolutionary committees among the masses. They are sustained through revolutionary taxes, limited agrarian revolution, elimination of usurious practices against the peasants, production projects and other modes,” Tuazon explained.
The communists boast of a presence in 73 out of 81 provinces in the Philippines, with all major islands and regions populated with their mass base. For them, this is a significant feat more than enough to assert a status of belligerency, or being a sovereign non-state force engaged in armed warfare with the Philippine government.
NPA fighters discuss medical work while inside their campMarco Valbuena, the CPP’s Chief Information Officer, said, “The organs of political power in the village level and upwards are governed by the constitution and rules of the people’s democratic government. Its representatives are directly elected by the people through assemblies.”
It also has its committees to draw up programs and plans for literacy and education, public health, production, and the economy, peace and order, and culture, he said, along with “funds collected from agricultural taxes (1% of additional income gained by the peasants), its income-generating projects or borrowed from various agencies or organizations. It has its own armed and police force (through the village militias and self-defense units), which help enforce its policies and decisions.”
“In some areas, committees have generated funds to step up the production of palay (rice), root crops, and vegetables to ensure food supplies. They have also pooled funds from members of the barrio who received subsidies to help raise food production. Other areas have set up public libraries where they can make available books, conduct literacy and education programs and provide internet service. Some have established clinics that are run by the village health committee and local medics or health workers.”
Civil war? Shadow government? What are they talking about? To hear the AFP talk about it the CPP-NPA is irrelevant and has been declared persona-non-grata by so many barangays that they are on the run. And what is this about generating funds to "step up" food production?"
Let's look at the profile of one recently captured NPA fighter. She claims she is not with the NPA but is merely a teacher.
A December 11 encounter between the New People’s Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in barangay Tinitian, Roxas, Palawan province resulted in the death of one NPA fighter and the separation of another.
Justine Kate Raca, a teacher and member of the New People’s Army, was eventually forced to submit to Marines belonging to the AFP’s Western Command and is currently in custody as a prisoner of war. According to human rights watchdog Karapatan Southern Tagalog, however, the military is “coercing [Raca] to surrender” as part of their Enhanced Community Livelihood Integration Program (E-CLIP); something they assert is “against her rights as a prisoner of war.”
Karapatan ST states that the military’s efforts to force Raca to surrender “impede on her rights and dignity to hold on to her political views and principles,” and is being used as a form of “psychological warfare” against her.
In an interview for Palawan-based Radyo Brigada, Raca was asked what she was doing with the NPA. She responded that they were “providing a service.”
“There are so many people that don’t get social services, and are prevented from making a living,” she said. “But the NPA, since we truly serve, that is what we give to those who do not get the services they need from the government.”
Raca stated that she helped children in their modules. The children would go to the base camps and she would assist them in understanding their lessons. “There are no other teachers,” she said. “I’m the only one they have.”
That is one perspective. This lady is a teacher who instructs children of NPA fighters. She herself is not an NPA fighter. The AFP says differently.
A female member of the New People’s Army (NPA) operating in northern Palawan has surrendered to local authorities after being separated from her colleagues during a military encounter with government troops Friday in Barangay Tinitian, Roxas.
A certain Justine Kate D. Raca reportedly presented herself to the village chief of Tinitian after escaping from the firefight and offered to surrender.
Larida voiced concern, however, about the presence of learning modules recovered during their clearing operation, claiming that the NPA is attempting to recruit minors or high school students by offering a kind of tutorial service leading to indoctrination.
“I am sad because of the module [s] eh. It looks like there are high school [students] coming up to their camp, and they are still using this module to attract young people, ”Larida said.
A military source profiled the rebel surenderee, Justine Kate D. Raca, as an education graduate, but not yet licensed, from the University of the Philippines (UP), who is from Bulacan. She’s a UP Batch 15-A Sigma Alpha Sorority member and was a student leader.
"Rich kid spoiled brat siya," the source described Raca.
The AFP says the modules indicate that the NPA is attempting to recruit minors and they say that the teacher they caught is a "rich kid spoiled brat." Do rich kid spoiled brats go out to the jungles to teach children? No, they don't. Perhaps she thinks she is fighting for a cause. Perhaps she believes in something contrary to the AFP calling communism a wholly empty ideology.
Another region is soon to be declared insurgency free.
Authorities have affirmed that Ilocos Region can now be declared as insurgency-free following a year of zero violent incidents involving the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Brig. Gen. Krishnamurti Mortela, commander of the 702nd Infantry Brigade, in a phone interview on Thursday, said the region is qualified to move to the “last stage” in the classification of an area as insurgency-free based on the joint implementing rules and regulations.
Mortela said the first is insurgency stage wherein there are influence and presence of armed groups while the second is an area declared as conflict manageable and ready for further development, which has been done in the region as early as 10 years ago when the force of the communist-terrorist group was substantially reduced.
He said the third stage is the insurgency-free wherein the government is in full control and there are no longer armed groups.
The territorial defenses are in place and de-radicalization (reorientation and reintegration) was done to the former supporters and the area was cleared of any influence of the communist-terrorist group, Mortela said.
“We have done this (third stage) and there has been relatively a year of peace,” he added.
“We affirm what we have been telling you that Region 1 (Ilocos Region) is insurgency-free. The lone KLG group has been dismantled (last year) and the remaining elements (of the group) have transferred to other guerilla fronts in the Cordillera Region, which are also getting dismantled that they are very weak now,” Esperon said during a virtual press conference on Wednesday afternoon hosted by the Philippine Information Agency Ilocos regional office.
The Ilocos Region is now insurgency free because there are no more armed groups in the area. However the reason they are not in the are is because they "transferred to other guerilla fronts in the Cordillera Region." But no worries as those fronts are also getting dismantled and becoming weak. That sounds less like a total victory and more like sweeping the dust from the living room into the kitchen.
