Cases filed by party-lists vs. NTF-ELCAC ‘order’ from Reds

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 29, 2022): Cases filed by party-lists vs. NTF-ELCAC ‘order’ from Reds (By Marita Moaje)

NTF ELCAC Spokesperson and PCOO Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy (PNA file photo)

The cases filed against the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) and its spokesperson Lorraine Badoy “come straight” from the central committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

“So, this filing of charges against officials of the NTF-ELCAC comes straight from the central committee of the terrorist organization, CPP-NPA-NDF, and are merely being implemented by their urban operatives on the ground,” Badoy said during the weekly NTF-ELCAC press conference at the National Press Club on Monday.

In a statement issued by the NTF-ELCAC, the personalities running in the May 9 elections under party-list groups are CPP-NPA-NDF’s urban operatives who filed charges against the task force officials.

“Hindi ito Lorraine Badoy statement kung hindi (This is not a Lorraine Badoy statement but) NTF-ELCAC’s statement on the filing of cases against the NTF-ELCAC by the CPP-NPA-NDF operatives,” Badoy said.

Badoy identified the urban operatives as Roberto de Castro, alleged Komiteng Tagapagpaganap member of CPP-NPA-NDF’s National United Front Committee (NUFC); Satur Ocampo, an alleged honorary member of the Central Committee and former Education Deputy Secretary of the NUFC; Sarah Elago, alleged Komiteng Tagapagpaganap member of the National Youth Sector Bureau for NUSP of the CPP-NPA-NDF; Teddy Casiño, also alleged Komiteng Tagapagpaganap member of the NUFC of the CPP-NPA-NDF; Arlene Brosas, alleged former Komiteng Tagapagpaganap member of the Manila-Rizal Regional Party Committee, Secretary of the Women’s Bureau in the National Capital Region (NCR) of the CPP-NPA-NDF; France Castro, alleged Education Deputy Secretary of the National Teacher’s Bureau of the CPP-NPA-NDF; and Ariel Casilao, alleged member of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s National Peasant Bureau.

She said the action is done to serve the propaganda purposes of the CPP-NPA-NDF which is to bring the government to court.

Badoy, however, said the charges will eventually end in the trash can as the communists have no cases to begin with against the NTF-ELCAC officials.

Voting KABAG means voting terrorists

Badoy said it is the NTF-ELCAC that has “a mountain of cases” against the party-list groups Kabataan, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), Bayan, Anakpawis, and Gabriela, which she called KABAG.

She said the NTF-ELCAC “stands firm and unstinting in fulfilling our obligations to the Filipino people of defending and protecting them from these deceitful communist terrorists who have the pure unmitigated gall to stand before the Filipinos to campaign for seats in Congress and ask that we trust them while at the same time lying to us about who it is who they truly are and denying with a passion that they are all members of the CPP-NPA-NDF”.

Badoy said if elected again in Congress, these party-lists that collectively represent themselves as the Makabayan Bloc will only continue to cause unrelenting destruction that the CPP-NPA-NDF did in the past 53 years.

She said the CPP-NPA-NDF is the biggest crime syndicate in the country.

“Vote them back in Congress and you vote back the worst, the most powerful terrorist enablers out to destroy our beloved Philippines. This is the cold unstinting truth,” she said.

The NTF-ELCAC, she said, will continue without missing a bit the unmasking of the CPP-NPA-NDF, more specifically KABAG.

“And we will hammer this truth over and over to the Filipino people – Kabataan is CPP-NPA-NDF; Anakpawis is CPP-NPA-NDF; Bayan Muna is CPP-NPA-NDF; Alliance of Concerned Teachers is CPP-NPA-NDF; Gabriela is CPP-NPA-NDF – so they will never forget whose rotten hearts we must slay to finally free our beloved Philippines from the inhumane shackles of communist terrorist vermin,” she added.

On March 25, lawmakers and nominees of the Makabayan bloc filed complaints at the Commission on Election (Comelec) against Badoy and other NTF-ELCAC officials for allegedly engaging in partisan politics and for red-tagging them.

Ex-CPP-NPA cadres back NTF ELCAC

Meanwhile, Jade Cinco, former secretary-general and youth organizer for Kabataan Party-list in Catbalogan, Samar, and Alma “Ka Janel” Gabin, former third-ranking official of the CPP-NPA-NDF in Eastern Visayas, supported NTF-ELCAC’s statement.

Gabin said as a former CPP-NPA cadre, she personally knows those who filed the cases against Badoy and the NTF ELCAC.

“So, iyong mga nag-file kay Usec. Lorraine, talagang mga kilalang-kilala ko. Alam ko iyong designation nila sa loob ng partido, kaya hindi nila maitatanggi na iyong ginagawa nila ngayon ay utos ng CPP-NPA at kabahagi ng sistema ng CPP para doon sa electoral na gawain (I know very well those who filed against Usec. Lorraine. I know their designation inside the party, so they cannot deny that what they are doing know was ordered by the CPP-NPA and is part of the CPP system for electoral works),” she said.

Gabin said since Makabayan was formed at the national level in 2007, she has already been sitting on the national electoral committee of the CPP-NPA-NDF as Eastern Visayas representative.

She said the CPP has a process for supporting a specific candidate during elections.

“Dumadaan siya ng process ng mga negotiation, sumusulat po ang NPA unit. Ang NPA command at ipinapaabot doon sa mga kandidato and then pag okey na iyong kandidato kakausapin na po namin (It passes a negotiation process, the NPA unit writes a letter, The NPA Command will then deliver this to the candidate and if the candidate is okay with it, they start the formal talks),” Gabin said.

She said this is a series of long tedious talks which means candidates cannot deny they were talking to CPP-NPA urban operatives.

Cinco, on the other hand, said he was introduced to the CPP-NPA by the Kabataan party-list back in 2015.

He then became the Kabataan Party-list secretary-general for Western Samar and eventually pledged as an official member of the CPP-NPA, and a white area commander from 2018 to 2019 before he surrendered.

“So, ito po iyon, bakit ko sinasaysay ang Kabataang Party-list at ang NPA? Kasi ang laki ng koneksiyon ng Kabataan Party-list sa NPA. Bakit kamo? Mismong si Sarah Elago, ang representative ng Kabataan Party-list ang nagsabi na kayong mga taga-Samar, sa Region 8, pumunta na kayo ng kanayunan at humawak ng armas para sa armadong pakikibaka, siya mismo in person na nagsabi sa amin. Kailan nangyari at anong taon iyon? Kung hindi po ako nagkakamali taong 2018 March po (So why do I talk about Kabataan Party-list and NPA? Because there is a big connection between them. Why? It is Sarah Elago herself of the Kabataan Party-list who told us, you from Samar, from Region 8, go to the mountains and take up arms and join the armed struggle, she in person told us that. When did it happen? If I am not mistaken, it happened in March 2018),” Cinco said, adding that this happened at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines near Mendiola.

He also said he met with senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares in 2016 when the latter went to Catbalogan City to campaign.

“Hindi namin kayang konsensiyahin na patuloy kayong uupo sa Kongreso at ikaw Neri Colmenares na makaupo mismo sa Senado. Ang kapal ng mukha mo, isa kang terorista, isa kang mamamatay-tao. Actually, hindi naman dapat Makabayan Bloc ang tawag sa inyo. Kamatayan Bloc kayong KABAG kayo sana mawala na kayo sa ating bansa (We cannot take it in our conscience that you continue in the congress, and you Neri Colmenares in the senate. You are a terrorist, a murdered. Actually, you should not be called Makabayan Bloc, KABAG is “Kamatayan Bloc” and I wish you all perish from the earth,” Cinco said.

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

The Anti-Terrorism Council also formally designated the NDF as a terrorist organization on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA that was created in April 1973.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1170951