The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) modus of fabricating news of encounters was fully exposed when it covered up the massacre of five civilians by one of its units in New Bataan, Davao de Oro between February 23 in the evening and the morning of February 24. Using gruesome photos, the 10th ID announced the following day that activists Chad Booc, Gelejurain Ngujo II, Elgyn Balonga, and drivers Robert Aragon and Tirso Añar were killed in an armed encounter.
These photos that were circulated on the internet showed Booc with a firearm and an empty ammo vest in order to portray him as a member of the New People’s Army (NPA). These photos were mocked, cursed and feasted upon by the AFP’s personnel.
The local NPA unit promptly declared that no encounter took place in Purok 8, Barangay Andap on the date claimed by the AFP. The victims’ group said that they were in the area to visit a Lumad community as part of their work as volunteer teachers and advocates of indigenous peoples’ welfare. On the night of February 23, they left New Bataan for Davao City when they were accosted by soldiers at a checkpoint in Barangay Poblacion.
The case now known as the New Bataan 5 is similar to previous cases of civilian abductions and killings in Mindanao. These include the shooting of three civilians by soldiers in Sityo Manluy-a, Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur on June 15, 2021. The modus is also similar to the series of killings of several revolutionary leaders in Mindanao last year. There have been numerous cases where civilians who were mercilessly killed suddenly became “members of the NPA.”
In all these cases, the military’s disinformation campaign automatically kicks in to cover up the cruel murders of civilians and the unarmed.
A week after the massacre in New Bataan, Moro communities became the subject of the AFP’s attacks and fabricated stories. After dropping bombs on Barangay Runggayan, Maguing, Lanao del Sur, in the early morning of March 1, the 103rd Ibde insisted that they bombarded a “camp of the terrorist Dawlah Islamiyah.”
The truth is that the area was a civilian community under the territory of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Despite being roundly refuted by a local MILF commander and local officials of Maguing, the AFP stubbornly maintained that it was the “Maute” and Dawlah Islamiya that their bombs hit.
No ordinary fake news
The AFP systematically and thoroughly spreads disinformation on media and social media after every fascist crime such as the above cases. According to communications experts, this type of fake news is not a mere case of omission or lack of data, but a plan that is orchestrated, funded and run by professionals. This is designed to foment irrational anger and hatred against targeted individuals, groups, race, religion or gender.
Disinformation is a weapon the AFP uses in its war of suppression. It is used to cover up crimes and grave violations of human rights in order to eliminate all obstacles in their war against the people. They utilize social media and employ numerous Facebook accounts under their control in order to manipulate public opinion. Fake “media” accounts are created to deceive millions of Facebook users.
The AFP closely follows the US Counterinsurgency Guide’s instructions which regard the manipulation of information as one of the key components of a supposedly successful counterinsurgency campaign. Among the doctrines taught by the US is that in order to instill information on the most significant number of the population, and thereby control public opinion, information must be disseminated immediately, no matter how distorted or completely fabricated these are. This also includes controlling the flow of information, which explains frequent news blackouts, restrictions to prevent media access to incident areas, and threats that prevent people to speak up.
In the New Bataan incident, it took the 10th ID almost 24 hours before reporting on the supposed encounter. Instead of sharing the news with legitimate media organizations, the disinformation was posted on its Facebook page, and was then echoed by the different military accounts.
In 2020, a wide network of Facebook accounts spreading disinformation and run by military officers was discovered. A few hundreds of these are said to have been taken down by Facebook. But these form only a small fraction since widespread disinformation by the AFP continues.
Recently in Esperanza, Masbate, a farmer was also made to wear an ammunition vest and a firearm was planted on his person after being killed by the 96th IB and presented as a member of the NPA who died in an encounter. Eight of the 15 massacres in Bicol under the Duterte regime were reported as encounters between the NPA and the AFP-PNP.
Cutting the flow of information between the people and those considered “enemies” of the ruling government also forms part of the military’s disinformation. They sabotage the website of the Communist Party of the Philippines, as well as those of the independent media, in order to prevent the flow of correct information.
https://cppangbayan.wordpress.com/2022/03/07/nanlaban-in-the-cities-engkwentro-in-the-countrysides-the-afps-forked-tongue/
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