‘Masses calling for end to ceasefire over military abuses’ - Northern Mindanao Reds

From InterAksyon (Nov 22): ‘Masses calling for end to ceasefire over military abuses’ - Northern Mindanao Reds

The unilateral ceasefires declared by the government and National Democratic Front of the Philippines are in danger of unraveling in Northern Mindanao as communities targeted by military operations call for an end to the suspension of hostilities, communist rebels in the region warned Tuesday.

“The masses are calling for an end to the ceasefire because they continue to be targets of enemy operations,” the New People’s Army North-Central Mindanao Region command said in a statement from its spokesman, Ka Allan Juanito.

The government and the rebels declared their separate ceasefires in August to pave the way for the resumption of formal peace negotiations. However, efforts to forge an indefinite bilateral ceasefire promised by the two sides appear to have hit snags lately, in part over the continued detention of more than 400 political prisoners.

Over the last two months, accusations of military violations of the government ceasefire have also been raised by rebel units, human rights groups and mass organizations, notably in northern and southern Luzon and other regions in Mindanao.

Most of the complaints accuse military units of conducting counterinsurgency operations in the guise of civil-military and so-called “peace and development” projects, although in the Caraga region, two peasant leaders actively involved in anti-mining campaigns have been murdered. There have also been reports of government troops harassing and, in one case in Bulacan, arresting and charging activists in the guise of the anti-drug campaign “Oplan Tokhang.”

In the statement, written in Bisaya, Juanito said units of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division as well as the police’s 13th Regional Public Safety Battalion have been operating in 78 villages in 22 towns and four cities of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.

As in other regions, Juanito said government forces used “Tokhang,” civic action missions and other pretexts to “search villages, illegally investigate residents and ransack homes,” staying in communities between three days to three weeks, particularly those where, Juanito claimed village councils were “pressured” to “request” military protection.

“In some communities where the masses fund the courage to ask the soldiers what their real intentions were since there is supposed to be a ceasefire with the NPA, the soldiers reply: ‘Only (President Rodrigo Duterte) and the NPA have a ceasefire, we don’t care’,” Juanito said.

On November 16, he said, in Barangay Plaridel, Claveria town in Misamis Oriental, farmers whose homes were demolished allegedly to pave the way for the expansion of a plantation of the Del Monte Corp. were offered help by an officer of the 58th Infantry Battalion to reclaim the land.

However, he said, the farmers were taken to the battalion’s headquarters in Barangay Migbanday “and made to sign a logbook essentially indicating their surrender” and “told that they would be assisted to claim the land they farmed and lived on only if they promised the soldiers that they would no longer joil rallies.”

Later, Juanito claimed, the military announced the “surrender” of rebels.

The rebel spokesman acknowledged that “our hands are tied and we can do nothing” against the alleged military harassment of communities because of the ceasefire.

However, he warned, “if the enemy do not stop their operations, there is a great possibility that sooner or later the NPA and the soldiers may be trading bullets.”

http://interaksyon.com/article/134542/masses-calling-for-end-to-ceasefire-over-military-abuses---northern-mindanao-reds

http://interaksyon.com/article/134542/masses-calling-for-end-to-ceasefire-over-military-abuses---northern-mindanao-reds