Youth camp successful in Basilan province

From the Mindanao Examiner (Dec 22): Youth camp successful in Basilan province



Some 170 people attended the “Youth Leadership Camp: Youth for Peace 2013” in the town of Ungkaya Pukan in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, organizers told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

The three-day youth camp dubbed as “Kabataan, Kaakibat sa Kapayapaan at Pag-unlad ng Ungkaya Pukan,” was initiated by the 18th Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Paolo Perez in coordination with stakeholders from nongovernmental organizations Nagdilaab Foundation Incorporation; Pinay Kilos, Non-Violent Peace Force, among others, including the local government.

It was participated by 12 villages in the town.

The leadership camp gave the youth challenging activities as well as lectures given by professional speakers covering the lectures on types and values of a leader, global warming, child rights and other subjects.
“The activity became an eye opener to the youth making them realize that they can be in one place with the other youth from the different barangays to discuss matters pertaining peace and development of their municipality.”

“It also became a show window for the youth not only to show their talents but also an opportunity to acquire knowledge necessary for them to improve their leadership skills as future leaders in their barangay. As expressed by most of the participants, it was an unforgettable experience they’ve gained and having a second batch would surely be an exciting event. The parents were also very amazed on how the children worked harmoniously with each other in the camp,” organizers said.





The three-day youth camp dubbed as “Kabataan, Kaakibat sa Kapayapaan at Pag-unlad ng Ungkaya Pukan,” in Basilan province.

http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20131222104043

Another soldier in Zamboanga siege eyed for top medal

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Dec 22): Another soldier in Zamboanga siege eyed for top medal
Another Medal for Valor could be given to a soldier for the exceptional act of courage that he displayed during the Zamboanga siege in September, after the military’s highest combat award was given on Friday to the late Private First Class Ian Paquit.

The military is still evaluating the award, a thorough process that normally takes time.

Inquirer sources said the soldier rescued at least two hostages in Sta. Catalina village in the last days of the three-week siege where Moro rebels loyal to Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chair Nur Misuari tried to take over the Zamboanga City.

In rescuing the hostages, the soldier found himself in the line of enemy fire. He still got the hostages to safety.

Should the military deem the soldier’s act as worthy of the Armed Forces’ highest military award, the crisis would produce two Medal for Valor recipients, a rarity.

“The Zamboanga crisis was an incident where the challenge to our troops was to contain the threat and rescue the hostages. The soldiers had to contain the threat in an urban terrain and rescue nearly 200 hostages given the sheer number of the enemy,” Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, public affairs chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) told the Inquirer by phone on Saturday.

Zagala said that considering the soldiers were able to rescue 195 hostages with minimal casualty was a feat in itself. The Zamboanga crisis saw the country’s first urban warfare.

Some 20 soldiers were killed in action, including Paquit who died on Sept. 24 after enemy fire hit him in the neck.

The awarding of the Medal for Valor to Paquit was the highlight of the low-key AFP Day celebration on Friday. The award was received by his father.

Over 2,000 soldiers received various awards for their participation in the Zamboanga crisis, one of the worst challenges the Aquino administration faced this year.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/550671/another-soldier-in-zamboanga-siege-eyed-for-top-medal

Questions shroud DND-BAC bidding for new aircraft

From the Manila Times (Dec 22): Questions shroud DND-BAC bidding for new aircraft

Questions have been raised over the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) plan to acquire new planes for its search and rescue operations as the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Government Procurement Policy Board was urged to investigate possible irregularities or mishandling by the DND Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

The call was made amidst the recent failed bidding and subsequent re-bidding of the P5.3 billion Medium Lift Fixed Wing Aircraft Acquisition Project, which involved the acquisition of three brand new aircrafts for territorial defense, internal peace and security plan, internal security operations, disaster response and national development.

Documents obtained by The Manila Times showed one of the bidders asking the DND “to suspend the bidding procedure until an investigation on the issue has been done to verify whether or not the DND-SBAC1 followed the right procedure for the issuance of the new bid and the relevant pre-bidding conference.”

Although three firms – Alenia Aermacchi, EADS Casa Air Bus Military and PT Dikrgantara Indonesia/Indonesian Aerospace (IAe/Persero) – already attended the pre-bid conference in October, the DND-BAC declared the November 11 bidding a failure as it did not publish the supplemental bid bulletin 7 days prior to the bid opening.

Roberto Pierdominici, regional sales director for Alenia, filed a complaint against the DND and Government Procurement Policy Board for “mishandling the bidding procedure by the DND-SBAC1 which unfairly imperils them and other legitimate bidders.”

It added that potentially interested bidders have been denied the right to submit a comprehensive proposal due to the lack of information on the December 2 pre-bid conference and the supplemental bid bulletin for a December 16 bidding, which has not been posted on the Philippine Government Procurement System (PhilGeps) nor in the official website of the DND, as required by applicable bidding rules and procedures.

http://manilatimes.net/questions-shroud-dnd-bac-bidding-for-new-aircraft/62714/

Rebels attack military detachments in Sorsogon

From ABS-CBN (Dec 22): Rebels attack military detachments in Sorsogon

Members of the New People's Army attacked two military detachments in Sorsogon on Saturday, hours after the Yuletide ceasefire with the rebels took effect.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Maj. Gen. Domingo Tutaan said the rebel attacks in Casiguran and Gubat towns occurred Saturday dawn, shortly after government forces began observing the 26-day Suspension of Offensive Military Operations (SOMO).

“They opened fire on our detachments, knowing that we are not on offensive operations. We returned fire and they withdrew,” Tutaan said.

There were no reported injuries or deaths from the government side during the encounter. Tutaan added that government troops were not able to determine if there were casualties inflicted on the rebels who withdrew.

The government truce was announced by Malacanang officials last Friday, shortly after the military commemorated its 78th foundation anniversary. The government truce is shorter compared to last year’s SOMO which lasted from December 16 to January 15.

The NPA will be observing their holiday truce on December 24, 25, 26, 31, January 1 and 2.

Tutaan believes that the rebels are taunting the soldiers to launch offensive military operations so that they can be charged of violating the SOMO.

He added that the military is bent on implementing the truce despite the rebel attacks.
Tutaan chastised the rebels for not including the civilians in their upcoming ceasefire. He noted that the rebel truce is limited only to government troops, which means that they can still attack civilian targets.

“Look at what they declared, it's only against the military and the police but they are not saying they are not going to harass civilian (targets). It's because this is where they earn money,” the official said.

The NPA is known to harass companies and other civilians if they fail to pay revolutionary "tax."

Tutaan assured that government troops will exert efforts to ensure the safety of the civilians during the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines criticized AFP chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista for ridiculing the six-day rebel truce.

Bautista said Thursday that the rebel truce was too short as he proposed that the NPA should implement a ceasefire that last "forever" to stop the suffering of the people affected by the insurgency.

“To declare a ceasefire ‘to last forever’ will only bring forth an eternal hell of military abuses, land-grabbing and environmental destruction,” the CPP said in a statement.

“General Bautista’s proposals are moronic, to say the least. Such thoughtless remarks reflect the AFP’s inability to understand the deep-seated reasons behind the Filipino people’s armed resistance and view the civil war only from the myopic perspective of a one track-minded fascist,” the CPP added.

The CPP also said the peasants, the fisherfolk and the minority indigenous people will be affected once they agree to a long-lasting ceasefire.

“To muzzle the guns of the NPA is to surrender the schools, the clinics, the farms and the peace which the peasant masses have established through their new democratic government that has been built on the people’s collective strength,” it said.

“Where the Aquino regime and the reactionary state and its armed forces are weak and practically non-existent, organs of the people’s democratic government are being established to serve the interests of the poor peasants, indigenous peoples and fisherfolk,” the CPP added.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/12/22/13/rebels-attack-military-detachments-sorsogon

Malaysian paper: Abu paid P12.6M for release of Taiwanese

From the Daily Tribune (Dec 23): Malaysian paper: Abu paid P12.6M for release of Taiwanese

Again it was proven that the no-ransom payment policy of the Aquino administration on individuals taken hostages by extremist groups is merely for show as Malaysian newspapers reported yesterday that a ransom of $300,000 or P12.6 million was paid to secure the release of Taiwanese hostage Evelyn Chang An-wei who was held by Abu Sayaff gunmen in Jolo.

Philippine and Taiwan government officials maintained that the 58-year-old An-wei, who was snatched by Filipino gunmen from Pom Pom island in Semporna on Nov 15, was rescued but the ransom payment was widely talked about in the Taiwanese media, according to Asia One Malaysia.

The newspaper added that An-wei’s elder brother Richard Chang Ta Kong did not dispute media reports on the ransom payment only adding that his sister was not abused during her captivity and that the kidnappers were only after money.

Ta Kong, who was communicating with the kidnappers during her 36-days of captivity, did not speak directly about the alleged ransom payment made by the family to the Abu Sayyaf abductors. An Wei’s 57-year-old husband Lim Min-hu was gunned down when he resisted after the Abu Sayyaf attempted to grab him during the kidnapping.

An-wei was left alone outside a forest area near Jolo’s Talipoa village when a Philippines joint task force found her at 4pm last Friday following a “tip off’’.

Philippines officials familiar with the kidnap for ransom operations explained that the Abu Sayaff groups usually released their captives once the agreed amount was sent in through intermediaries, according to the Malaysian newspaper.

The Abu Sayyaf would not call the payments as ransom but a boad and lodging fee and charges for “operational expenses’’ for the intermediaries.

An-wei returned to Taiwan yesterday afternoon after being released by her captors.
She was accompanied by her brother Chang Ta-kong and Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) agents when she arrived at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport from Manila, according to the Taipei Times.

Television footage showed her dressed in a loose T-shirt and wearing sunglasses, walking to a minibus parked at the airport, waving briefly to the media and giving a thumbs-up sign, the newspaper reported. She was subsequently transported to the National Taiwan University Hospital for medical checkups, it added.

“I just want to say I deeply appreciate the Philippine military for giving me such a big help and assistance to rescue me. Thank you very much,” Chang An-wei was quoted as saying in a video report aired yesterday on several Taiwanese TV news channels.

Chang Ta-kong thanked the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group for helping him to communicate with the kidnappers and his sister during her captivity.

He also expressed gratitude to the CIB, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Malaysian and Philippine police authorities for their work in the rescue mission.

While CIB Commissioner Lin Teh-hua confirmed at the press conference that the kidnappers were a group of Abu Sayyaf rebels — a militant Islamist separatist group based in and around the southern Philippines — both he and Chang Ta-kong declined to reveal details about the rescue operation and the ransom negotiations out of concern for the safety of people involved in the mission.

Abu Sayyaf, which receives funding from al-Qaeda in the past, is a notorious bandit group which earns its reputation for high-profile kidnapping operations.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/malaysian-paper-abu-paid-p12-6m-for-release-of-taiwanese

CPP/NDF: Video - KASAMA extends solidarity to CPP on 45th anniversary

Posted to the PRWC blog site (Dec 22): KASAMA extends solidarity to CPP on 45th anniversary

Katipunan ng Samahang Manggagawa
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
December 22, 213



http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2013/12/kasama-extends-solidarity-to-cpp-on.html

The Katipunan ng Samahang Manggagawa (KASAMA), the revolutionary mass organization of workers and toiling people extends its greetings to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on the occasion of the CPP's 45th anniversary. In their statement, the KASMA celebrates the CPP's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leadership of the Philippine revolution. It calls for greater mass struggles amidst the worsening crisis of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system and enjoins on workers, the semi-proletarian and poor masses in the cities to join the New People's Army (NPA) and the revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside.

http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2013/12/kasama-extends-solidarity-to-cpp-on.html

CPP: Video - Ipagdiwang ang 45 taon ng PKP!

From the PRWC blog site (Dec 21): [VIDEO] Ipagdiwang ang 45 taon ng PKP! (Celebrate 45 years of the CPP!)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJC9E8JZTY8&feature=c4-overview&list=UUIdJcoTlC5Q5jrKCOh4dJeA

Ipagdiwang natin ang ika-45 anibersaryo ng muling pagtatatag ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) sa Disyembre 26 para itanghal ang malalaking tagumpay na nakamit sa 45 taon ng puspusang rebolusyonaryong pakikibaka at pagsasakripisyo at muling mapagtibay ang determinasyong isulong ang pambansa-demokratikong rebolusyon.
[We celebrate the 45th anniversary of the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on December 26 in order to present the major successes achieved in 45 years of hard revolutionary struggle and sacrifice along with the determination to re-establish and advance the national democratic revolution.]

http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/

CPP: AFP chief’s moronic “ceasefire forever” means “eternal hell of military abuses”—CPP

From the CPP Website (Dec 22): AFP chief’s moronic “ceasefire forever” means “eternal hell of military abuses”—CPP

Communist Party of the Philippines

 

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today chided Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista for criticizing the two 3-day ceasefire declarations issued by the CPP Central Committee as being “too short” and proposing that the New People’s Army (NPA) declare a ceasefire “that would last forever.”

“To declare a ceasefire ‘to last forever’ will only bring forth an eternal hell of military abuses, landgrabbing and environmental destruction,” declared the CPP.

“General Bautista’s proposals are moronic, to say the least,” said the CPP. “Such thoughtless remarks reflect the AFP’s inability to understand the deep-seated reasons behind the Filipino people’s armed resistance and view the civil war only from the myopic perspective of a one track-minded fascist.”

Last Wednesday, the CPP Central Committee issued a ceasefire declaration that would take effect on 12:00 am of December 24 to 11:59 pm of December 26; and 12:00 am of December 31 to 11:59 pm of January 2. The CPP declaration is in keeping with the Filipino people’s traditional observance of the holidays and to pave the way for the people and their revolutionary forces to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the CPP on December 26.

“Without the NPA, the peasant masses, the fisherfolk and the minority indigenous peoples have nothing to defend their farms and ancestral land with against the relentless encroachments of foreign mining companies and large logging operations and the landgrabbing by big landlords and foreign-owned or financed plantations, which are invariably accompanied by units of the AFP to cow the people into accepting such subjugation,” said the CPP.

“To muzzle the guns of the NPA is to surrender the schools, the clinics, the farms and the peace which the peasant masses have established through their new democratic government that has been built on the people’s collective strength,” added the CPP. “Where the Aquino regime and the reactionary state and its armed forces are weak and practically non-existent, organs of the people’s democratic government are being established to serve the interests of the poor peasants, indigenous peoples and fisherfolk.”

“Under the Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression, the AFP has been carrying out grave abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law, victimizing mainly civilians, especially children, women and the elderly,” said the CPP.

It cited the killing of 8-year old Roque Antivo, who, together with his brother and uncle, were fired upon by trigger-happy soldiers of the 71st IB in Barangay Antipan, Mabini, Compostela Valley on April 3. The officials of the 71st IB, as well as key officials of the 10th ID, the AFP and the Aquino regime have been indicted by the People’s Democratic Government of Compostela Valley and have been recommended for trial.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20131222_afp-chief-s-moronic-ceasefire-forever-means-eternal-hell-of-military-abuses-cpp