Sunday, August 4, 2019

Reds reply tit-for-tat to Duterte, orders attacks on DDS, too

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Aug 4, 2019): Reds reply tit-for-tat to Duterte, orders attacks on DDS, too



This photo taken on July 30, 2017 shows guerrillas of the New People’s Army (NPA) in formation in the Sierra Madre mountain range, located east of Manila. /AFP FILE PHOTO

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Sunday (Aug. 4) described President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to the military to respond “tit-for-tat” to supposed rebel atrocities as a “code for killings and torture” that would target civilians, promising to “fight back” for noncombatants who can’t defend themselves.

“The New People’s Army is not shaken by Duterte’s threats,” said CPP in a statement sent by e-mail. “The NPA can defend itself with arms,” it said.

“But unarmed peasants, lawyers, human rights defenders, church people, civilians can’t,” the CPP statement added. “The NPA must fight back for them.”


CPP said Duterte’s order to the military and police to “give NPA rebels what they deserve” was nothing but a directive to target civilians suspected of aiding rebels and sow terror to instill fear among leftist activists and organizers.

Duterte accused NPA of torturing four intelligence police officers before they were killed in Negros Oriental on July 18 but CPP said the policemen were killed in ambush, not tortured and were treated as “armed adversaries of the NPA who died in a legitimate act of war.”

CPP also called on NPA rebels in Negros Oriental to escalate attacks on government targets in response to Duterte’s tit-for-tat order. The order also covered DDS or Duterte Diehard Supporters “to punish those responsible for the killings of civilians.”

CPP rejected Duterte’s claim that he never allowed the military to torture NPA rebels, pointing out how a captured female rebel was shot in her genitals last April by soldiers following Duterte’s order to shoot female guerrillas “in the vagina.”

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