The Manila Times editorial headline last Friday read, “Badoy red-tagging case demands serious attention and scrutiny.”
To that I say, “Indeed!”
So, I hastened to lift this post from the Facebook account of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. by which to prove that point.
“The recent encounter at Brooke’s Point Palawan between the NPA (New People’s Army) and Force Reconnaissance Group of the Philippine Marine Corps resulted [in] the killing of Bonifacio “Salvador Luminoso” Magramo, the secretary of the Sub-Region Military Area (SRMA) 4E of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC) [of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)], Andrea “Ka Naya” Rosal, daughter of late NPA [spokesman] Ka Roger Rosal and deputy secretary of the group, Noel “Ka Celso” Siasico, and Ren RJ “Ka Amir” “Lemon” Manalo; all from the NPA’s Bienvenido Vallever Command (BVC) Palawan.”
The Facebook post identifies Rona Jane Manalo as “a member of [Pamlakaya] and infiltrated legal [organizations] in [M]indoro such as [Samakasamin] or Samahan ng mga Kababaihan sa Mindoro as the [p]rovincial [c]oordinator, [Haggibat] and [Bayan] Mindoro.”
Finished with a long litany of rebel casualties in that encounter, Lt. General Parlade waxes sarcastic, “So, Cristina Palabay, explain why an activist like REN @Lemon/Pandan was there in a violent incident in Palawan if she is not a terrorist like @Eboy and the rest of the NPAs killed? You have been complaining of being Red-tagged, so aren’t you?”
Might not the general address that sarcasm, too, to those that The Times editorial reported as complaining of similar re-tagging (i.e., Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list, Rep. Eufemia Cullamat of Bayan Muna and Rep. France Castro of ACT Teachers)?
“In quick succession,” the editorial said, the women lawmakers issued strongly worded statements, protesting the online posts of Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy. The representatives felt they had been alluded to by Badoy’s allegation that some lawmakers, who are members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, are high-ranking members of the CPP-NPA.
Although the lawmakers cried out their protests to high heavens, none of them ever issued a denial. It will take the same fate as that suffered by Rona Jane Manalo to prove they are CPP-NPA members after all.
It is doubtful though that any of the vociferous legislators will go the poor girl’s way. In the Sisonite protracted people’s war, only the combatants in the field really suffer the grueling rigors of battle. Those in the lead enjoy wine, women and song in the cosmopolitan life of The Netherlands.
Among those that called out Badoy for red-tagging and actually demanded her resignation is the ACT Teachers representative. This must be particularly troubling for Parlade. In a text interview, he reveals that the Department of Education (DepEd) is the “most heavily infiltrated organization” by the CPP-NPA, citing ACT’s 150,000 teacher members.
“DepEd is hostaged by ACT,” Parlade said. “Its action to control [CPP-NPA] recruitment of students is wanting.”
Now as then, Jose Maria Sison’s strategy at poisoning the minds of idealistic youth in order that they join the armed struggle seems not to have changed. But unlike then － meaning the First Quarter Storm, which spawned the top CPP cadres that guided the CPP’s growth to 25,000 regulars on the eve of the Marcos downfall in 1986 － now sees the government anti-insurgency campaign well propped up by the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL).
Rona Jane ‘RJ’ Manalo (right in photo above), who as a Gabriela official cried ‘red-tagging’ while infiltrating legal organizations in Mindoro, recently died in Brooke’s Point, Palawan as an NPA combatant, fighting for the cause of the ‘demigod womanizing in the Netherlands.’ CONTRIBUTED PHOTOs from the COLUMN’S FOLLOWER
According to Parlade, preparatory acts such as involvement in planning, preparation, etc. of a terror act are included among punishable offenses under the ATL.
So, although the DepEd, as the general avows, might be remiss in its duty of ensuring that schools are not made grounds for spawning enemies of the government, the very existence of the ATL effectively neutralizes this shortcoming.
“Recruitment and providing financial and other forms of support make one principally liable,” Parlade said.
He admitted that ending the insurgency this year, as he had vowed to do upon assumption of the top Southern Luzon Command post in March, will be difficult given the sudden additional burdens heaped upon the government on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, Parlade cited figures representing the success of the government drive in this respect. From January to August 2020, the NPA rebels killed numbered 34; captured, 40; and surrendered, 93 regulars and 214 non-regulars. The total manpower reduction in the NPA ranks is 381.
That number corresponds to one whole company annihilated.
In terms of firearms lost to the government, there were a total of 193, broken down into 106 high-powered and 87 low-powered weapons.
According to Parlade, the wipeout of the SRMA 4E in Mindoro has completely frustrated the NPA plan to complement its Regional Operations Command and its Main Regional Guerilla Unit. This has prompted the entire CPP STRPC to try and seek sanctuary in Palawan, but with the Brooke’s Point encounter resulting in similar wipeout of the Bienvenido Vallever Command Palawan, the STRPC can be on a crazy merry-go-round.
There’s nowhere to run, guys.
Anyway, Lt. General Parlade is giving you one last option or perish: “Give up your armed struggle and join us in pursuing peace, justice and development in the countryside.”
https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/09/13/opinion/columnists/of-red-tagging-deped-infiltration-by-communists-and-npas-crazy-merry-go-round/767590/
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