From the Visayan Daily Star (Mar 29, 2019): Escalante ‘militarization’ slammed
Militant groups yesterday slammed the “militarization” in Escalante City, Negros Occidental, following an encounter between the Army and suspected rebels in Barangay Mabini, last week.
They also claimed that the so-called encounter that displaced 600 individuals in neighboring Toboso did not happen and that it was only a scenario created by the military.
In a press conference yesterday, Rep. Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna party-list) said the ongoing militarization in the rural communities only shows that the government has never learned its lesson.
“Instead of addressing the root cause of insurgency, like poverty and land conflict, they create this fake encounter,” he added.
He said they are currently gathering information on the situation as similar incidents were also reported in different localities in the Visayas. He added the Makabayan Bloc will file a House resolution calling for an investigation on the “fake encounters.”
“The Congress is in recess right now. We will be back after the election. But there’s a pattern in this kind of scenario, and we want to look into this,” Zarate said.
For his part, Rey Alburo, secretary-general of Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, claimed there are massive military operations in Escalante. “The people in the rural areas are frightened due to this. Some residents were forced to leave their homes because they feel threatened by the army’s presence,” he added.
He also claimed the military make house-to-house check to see if the residents are hiding suspected members of the New People’s Army.
Clarizza Dagatan, secretary-general of Karapatan-Negros, said they continue to monitor and document the massive human rights violations in Escalante.
She said residents were forced to sign a document that they will never support the rebel movement. “We fear that those in the list might be a target for neutralization, meaning they might be killed. They heightened the militarization to neutralize the NPAs,” she added.
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2019/March/29/topstory5.htm
The Escalante area has long been a hot bed of the communist insurgency. The Philippine military has been fighting elements of the Maoist New People's Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), for years.
ReplyDeleteThe groups mentioned in the article, Bayan Muna (People First), Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (NNAHRA), and KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights), are all CPP front organizations.
A major goal of these groups is to undermine and discredit Philippine security forces in their efforts to conduct counterinsurgency operations targeting the NPA an its civilian mass base supporters in the Escalante area.