100 Anakpawis members, 75 ex-NPA rebels sever ties with Reds

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 25, 2021): 100 Anakpawis members, 75 ex-NPA rebels sever ties with Reds (By Gigie Arcilla)

DISAFFILIATION. A total of 100 members of Anakpawis - Pamplona Municipal Chapter, 75 New People’s Army members from Sto Niño, Rizal and Piat in Cagayan, and 30 youths attend a disaffiliation ceremony at the Multi-Purpose Gymnasium of Barangay San Juan in Pamplona town, Cagayan on April 24, 2021. Claims of hardships and deception prompted them to sever ties with the communist groups. (Contributed photo)

Just when the National Democratic Front (NDF) was celebrating its 48th anniversary on Saturday, a total of 100 members of militant group Anakpawis along with former members of the New People’s Army (NPA), and several youths severed their ties with communist terrorist groups (CTG).

A report from the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict said the disaffiliation ceremony at the Multi-Purpose Gymnasium of Barangay San Juan in Pamplona town, Cagayan attended by the 100 members of Anakpawis - Pamplona Municipal Chapter, 75 NPA members from Sto Niño, Rizal, and Piat in Cagayan, and 30 youths.

Emelita Biscaro alias Mimi, a former full-time Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) member, admitted that she joined Anakpawis in 2012 because the group has been helping the poor like them especially addressing their land problems.

Biscaro, of Barangay Curva, Pamplona, and vice-chairperson of women’s peasant group AMIHAN-Cagayan, said she later led organizing activities in the province but decided to leave the organization in 2018.

Former CPP-NPA member Mitch Ligas, of Barangay Calassitan, Sto Nino, Cagayan, said she was recruited by a certain Ivy Lyn Corpin alias Red.

Ligas claimed to be a victim of deceitful recruitment by being promised an educational scholarship and support for her family’s land dispute problems.

Admitting the hardships she experienced with the NPA, she urged the public to be vigilant and fight the deceptive recruitment of CTGs, and protect the youth sector.

Meanwhile, Balani Barangay Captain Mauricio Aguinaldo, a former rebel now the Regional coordinator of SAMBAYANAN, brought with him 45 former NPA rebels from Sto. Nino and Rizal.

He denounced the CTGs and all its national leaders, particularly former Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano, for going around Cagayan province to deceive innocent individuals and families.

Anakpwis, a party-list of marginalized sectors of workers, peasants, fisherfolk, national minorities, urban and rural poor, is reportedly an electoral wing of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and the peasant group Kilusang Mangbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

KMU and KMP, along with Bayan, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, League of Filipino Students, and KADENA were earlier named by CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison as part of the CPP-NPA’s democratic forces in advancing their Philippine revolution.

Aguinaldo said it is high time to oppose CTGs, and thanked the 100 Anakpawis members for their withdrawal of support to the CPP-NPA.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

He lauded the efforts of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and the benefits provided to former NPA rebels.

The event was also graced by Cagayan Provincial Administrator, Lt. Col. Darwin B. Sacramed who represented Pamplona Mayor Digna G Puzon-Antonio; Brig. Gen. Steve D. Crespillo, of the Army’s 50th Infantry Brigade; Police Col. Romaldo Bayting; and heads of regional offices of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Police Regional Office, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Department of Social Welfare and Development and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1137948