Be vigilant, brace for renewed NPA guerilla attacks–Palace

From the Business Mirror (Dec 14): Be vigilant, brace for renewed NPA guerilla attacks–Palace

The government is expecting intensified attacks from communist-led New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas with the extension of martial law in Mindanao, and has warned the public to be more vigilant in the wake of these anticipated offensives, Malacañang said on Thursday.

“Well, I think the reality is with the halt of the peace talks, there would be more military encounters between the Armed Forces and the New People’s Army. So we need to be more vigilant,” Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said at a news briefing.

He added government troops were instructed to do everything in their power to quell terrorism in the southern third of the country. “So what else can be done? Well, more of the same. We just need to be able to deal with threats as they happen,” he said.

Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of martial-law extension in Mindanao on Wednesday, approving President Duterte’s appeal to continue imposing military rule in the island for another year from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018. The President appealed to lawmakers to grant his request to allow government troops to neutralize the Islamic State and the NPA in Mindanao.

In his letter to Senate President Aquilino L. Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez, Duterte said he is adhering to the recommendation of his defense chief to prolong martial law in Mindanao.

Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana advised the President to extend military rule in the island to “ensure the total eradication of Daesh-inspired Da’awatul Islamiyah Waliyatul Masriq, other like-minded local and foreign terrorist groups and armed lawless groups, and the communist terrorists and their coddlers, supporters and financiers.”

With Congress’s approval of the extension, Duterte became the first President in the post-Marcos era to declare martial law due to the communist insurgency. The late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos declared a nationwide martial law in 1972, which has resulted to thousands of cases of human-rights violation.

Roque said the public need not worry of a possible repetition of history with the martial-law extension in Mindanao. “I think we have shown for the entire period that martial law has been imposed in Mindanao, that this is not the same martial law that we had in 1972. Courts remain functioning [and] Congress remains existing. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution is enforced,” he said.

“So I don’t think there’s been any legal basis for the fears of many that there will be the return of dictatorial rule, neither has there been any systematic or gross violations of human rights so far,” the Palace official added. He said it is just that for the time being, military rule reigns supreme over civilian rule in Mindanao.

On top of this, Roque said, Malacañang has not received any complaints of human-rights violation from the local government unit of Marawi City, Lanao del Sur. “We are not exactly exploiting that and local government unit has actually complained, even in Marawi that they fear that their mandates have been violated,” he said.

Roque warned the public should be more vigilant on intensified NPA attacks in the face of the cancellation of the peace talks and the extension of martial law in Mindanao. The NPA and its ideological arm, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), are strongly opposed to military rule in the island.

With the extension, the CPP vowed to face martial law with force and declared it will not back down in confronting government forces in the southern third of the country. “That this will result in unmitigated death and destruction goes without saying, that this came after his declaration of the CPP and NPA as terrorists and simple criminals and his unbridled hostility to the legal democratic movement, speaks loudly and clearly of his intention to impose nationwide martial law. With barely concealed steps, Duterte is setting up his fascist dictatorship to perpetuate himself in power,” the CPP said.

“The people and the revolutionary movement are ready to defend themselves and will meet him head-on,” the CPP added. 

https://businessmirror.com.ph/be-vigilant-brace-for-renewed-npa-guerilla-attacks-palace/