NPA is a belligerent force in PH, spokesman says

From the often pro-Communist Party of the Philippine (CPP) online publication the Davao Today (Jul 31): NPA is a belligerent force in PH, spokesman says

The New People’s Army continues to show its belligerent status in the Philippines, this, despite the fact that the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte and the Armed Forces of the Philippines has declared the revolutionary forces as “terrorists and criminals.”

This is the claim made by Rigoberto Sanchez, the spokesperson of the NPA Regional Operations Command in Southern Mindanao Region in a press statement released on Sunday, July 29.

Among the irrefutable facts of NPAs belligerency are the releases of Prisoners of War, one of those was the recent release of Police Officer Menardo N. Cui that was facilitated last July 27 in Sitio Indawhong, Barangay Salaysay in Baguio District, Davao City.

Sanchez said the release was done in Davao City in the midst of the claims of the AFP that the city is virtually free of the NPAs.

Cui was officially released through Special Assistant to the President, Christopher “Bong” Go, a fact that Sanchez said made the Duterte regime obliterate the reality that the NPA continues to be a belligerent force in the country.

“The US-Duterte regime’s principal, Rodrigo Duterte, has declared the NPA and revolutionary forces as terrorists and criminals and scuttled the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. But by sending his closest emissary and chief representative, Duterte has unwittingly acknowledged the status of belligerency acquired by the NPA under international laws,” Sanchez pointed out.

He added that the People’s Democratic Government has proven its status of belligerency whenever the NPA captures and detains prisoners of war for various lengths of time and accords them humane treatment under the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I.

It is also through the waging of revolutionary armed struggle and the building of political power and the organization of the people that are capable of defending their own territories that the NPA also gained such belligerency.

“It is by doing all these and achieving greater victories in people’s war that it has gained wide international recognition of the NPA’s status of belligerency and the recognition of the People’s Democratic Government,” he added.

Sanchez also clarified that the NPA-SMR rejects the announcement of Go on the localized peace talks as this will only connote surrender to the continuing psy-war operations of the US-Duterte regime.

“The NPA is adamant not to be made a party to local peace negotiations that reject the masses’ clamor for genuine land reform and national industrialization,” he added.

He also made a contradiction to the safe and orderly release of Cui as compared to the tyranny, fascism and anti-peace talk stance that characterize the regime of Bong Go’s principal Rodrigo Duterte.

“Despite the martial law in Mindanao and Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s sway over AFP and PNP forces to vanquish NPA forces in her turf, the NPA persists in its areas of operation in Davao City,” Sanchez said.

He also stressed that the People’s Democratic Government continues to conduct governance and police power, including granting clemency or archiving cases filed against enemy state forces on justifiable grounds in the city.

“The same comfort cannot be expected from the US-Duterte regime which prefers extra-judicial killing and arrest of innocent civilians and plunder of the nation’s coffers,” he added.

Sanchez also recalled how the AFP and the PNP inflict harm and cruel detention to the red fighters, the 99 political prisoners in Southern Mindanao and on the case of NPA Commander Zaldy Cañete.

He said that POW Cui expressed appreciation for the humane and lenient treatment by the NPA custodial force.

Sanchez also reported that a day after Cui’s release, the AFP troops deployed for combat and pursuit operations against the NPA custodial force were hit by command-detonated explosives in Sitio Kamarag, Brgy. Tambobong, Baguio District at around 10:25 am.

He said that they received an initial report revealing that the state forces sustained at least 6 casualties in the said NPA offensive.

http://davaotoday.com/main/politics/npa-is-a-belligerent-force-in-ph-spokesman-says/