Takedown of Reds’ over 400 FB pages has ‘far-reaching’ effects

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 11, 2022): Takedown of Reds’ over 400 FB pages has ‘far-reaching’ effects (By Marita Moaje)

NTF ELCAC Spokesperson for Sectoral Concerns Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy (File photo)

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) expressed its “profound” gratitude to Meta for its recent decision to take down over 400 Facebook pages of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDF).

“The effects of this takedown are far-reaching and will help slow down the free fall of our children into the deceptive recruitment of the CPP-NPA-NDF that have offered them as living sacrifices on the altar of the terrorist, Joma Sison, to wage a senseless war that’s been going on for the past 53 years now and where the cost in terms of Filipino lives and the progress of our country can no longer be measured,” NTF ELCAC Spokesperson for Sectoral Concerns Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy said in a statement on Sunday.

Badoy said the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF is a well-organized crime syndicate – the biggest in the country and one of the largest in the world.

“This linking of arms of Facebook with the NTF ELCAC underscores the Truth that terrorism is a crime that does not respect borders and that in the battle to end the grief and destruction wrought by terrorists, the community of nations must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in battling this scourge to humanity,” she said

In Northern America, she said the CPP has created the International League of Peoples’ Struggle and Bayan USA together with other CPP-NPA-NDF’s fronts like GABRIELA, Anakbayan, MIGRANTE, and League of Filipino Students that have infiltrated campuses, unwitting civic organizations, and other communities.

“This is duplicated in Europe,” Badoy said.

She said the CPP-NPA-NDF has used Facebook to foment violence and hatred and “with brazen impunity, time and again, called for the overthrow of a legitimate government and the ouster of a constitutionally elected President who was given a strong mandate by the Filipino people.”

“They use Facebook to implement their despicable and venomous AOM method (AROUSE, ORGANIZE, MOBILIZE) to sow division among the Filipino people and to teach the Filipino people to hate and mistrust a government sincere and effective in its efforts to care for its citizens–more so during a time of the pandemic,” Badoy said.

She said Facebook Threat Disruption Director David Agranovich has a “notable” revelation that the CPP-NPA-NDF launched attacks on legitimate websites and pages on Facebook, offering protection from “the very same attacks they carry out.”

“Sa Tagalog pa, RAKET maliwanag (In Tagalog, it is a clear racket). A CPP-NPA-NDF modus we are all familiar with,” Badoy said.

She said there is no doubt that the takedown of those poisonous pages “has moved us forward in our fight to end and destroy the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF.”

“And it has made cyberspace a much safer, more respectful, and smarter place to be in,” she added.

She said the only the CPP-NPA-NDF fronts will “raise a cry of protest” against the takedown of over 400 Facebook pages just like what the KARAPATAN did recently.

“We are confident that the collaborative work we’ve started with our global partners who are like us, ceaseless in building a global community more in keeping with who it is we truly are as a race, will bring about the defeat of terrorists like the CPP-NPA-NDF,” Badoy said.

She urged Filipinos to help in the government’s fight against terrorism.

“Indeed, it takes a village to shelter and protect and raise a child. And this whole-of-nation approach is evolving into what it ought to be: a whole-of-nations approach,” she said.

Badoy said the NTF-ELCAC is “truly grateful that Facebook has stepped up and dealt a mighty blow to these communist terrorists.”

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

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1171987