CPP/NPA-South Central Negros: NPA burns backhoe, warns elite engaging in destructive and harmful economic activities

Propaganda statement posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Sep 14, 2021): NPA burns backhoe, warns elite engaging in destructive and harmful economic activities

DIONESIO MAGBUELAS

SPOKESPERSON

NPA-SOUTH CENTRAL NEGROS (MT. CANSERMON COMMAND)

NEGROS ISLAND REGIONAL OPERATIONAL COMMAND (APOLINARIO GATMAITAN COMMAND)

NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

The New People’s Army South Central Negros Mount Cansermon Command (MCC-NPA) admitted to burning a backhoe situated at Sitio Bulod, Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental around 6:00 in the evening last September 11, 2021.

In a statement issued today, MCC-NPA spokesperson Ka Dionesio Magbuelas explained that it served as a reminder to the ruling class not to engage in destructive and harmful economic activities.

“What the elite calls ‘development projects’ are detrimental to the poor peasants and the ancestral domain of the Indigenous Peoples particularly in the mountain ranges and forest lands of Cambantog, Trukat, Tahod Ilajas and Cansermon in the boundary areas of Binalbagan and Himamaylan City in Negros Occidental and La Libertad and Tayasan in Negros Oriental,” he said.

Magbuelas noted that the “the road construction of Himamaylan City-Negros Oriental Boundary along Tayasan Road is meant to pave the way for the entry of multinational mining companies and other big businesses targeting the estimated 1,100 hectares of Tribu Itoman-Maghat-Bukidnon lands” in the hinterlands of Himamaylan City which through the years have been threatened by development aggression.

According to him, big capitalists have tried to initiate plantations of cash crops such as palm tree and pineapple, mining explorations in the aforementioned mountain ranges, and an area survey to construct a dam along the Ilog-Hilabangan River Basin but failed due to the collective resistance of Indigenous Peoples and other residents.

“These economic projects will bring in huge profits for the multinational firms but it will displace the people and their livelihood and harm the environment,” he said.

Mining and militarization
The MCC-NPA remarked that grave criminal acts and human rights violations have escalated in the mountainous areas of Himamaylan City after President Duterte lifted the moratorium on mining last April which the provincial government of Negros Occidental supported through an executive order.

Magbuelas mentioned that tribe members living and farming-hunting in areas of Himamaylan City designated by the NIPAS Act of 1992 as forest reserve and watershed zones were threatened by the military to vacate their houses within 2 months; the 3rd Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) launched a ceaseless military campaign employing the 62nd and 94th Infantry Battalions; and the Cambantog mountain range was bombed by the AFP using mortars and howitzer canons last June 9.

He described the AFP as a mercenary group of the ruling class used as attack hounds to drive the people away from the areas targeted by big mining firms and as security guards of their properties and business operations.

He expressed that the revolutionary government does not tolerate destructive and harmful economic activities within its territory and is ever determined to penalize any anti-people project.

Finally, he affirmed that the MCC-NPA together with the revolutionary forces remains vigilant in serving the people and the revolution.###

https://cpp.ph/statements/npa-burns-backhoe-warns-elite-engaging-in-destructive-and-harmful-economic-activities/