The New People's Army says the military got the wrong guy, alleged to be an NPA leader
WRONG GUY. Rebel spokesman Ka Efren says the military nabbed the wrong guy, believed to be New People’s Army commander Felix Armodia.
The spokesman of the underground communist movement New People's Army (NPA) said the man arrested by police and military forces was not NPA commander Felix Armodia.
On Saturday, May
3, the Eastern Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
announced the capture of Armodia, identified as the secretary of the NPA's
Front 72.
Front 72 operates
in the quad-boundaries of North and South Cotabato ,
Davao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat.
The NPA is the
armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Rebel spokesman
"Ka Efren" of the Far South Mindanao Regional Party Committee of the
CPP said in a phone interview that Armodia is “safe with our comrades in the
guerrilla front.”
On Friday, May 2,
authorities arrested local anti-mining activist Romeo Rivera in South Cotabato for his alleged participation in the
communist movement.
Captain Alberto
Caber, public affairs chief of the military's Eastern Mindanao Command, said
Rivera led NPA rebels in Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, and North
Cotabato .
"He was
responsible for the series of attacks on plantations and construction firms in
the region that do not give in to their extortion demands," Caber said.
Mistaken
identity
Rivera is now
under the custody of police in Digos
City
Emily Lopez of
environmental group Panalipdan said the 52-year-old carpenter is a member of
their group and is widely known in Tampakan for his involvement in the
anti-mining campaign.
Rivera, along
with the Panalipdan network, opposed the large-scale mining in Mindanao,
particularly against XSTRATA-SMI in South Cotabato ,
Sarangani and Davao del Sur.
Lopez also said
that contrary to reports, Rivera was not arrested but was abducted by
intelligence operatives in his residence in Koronadal City
Ka Efren said
Rivera was either mistakenly abducted or the intelligence units that nabbed him
utterly failed in their information.
“They want to
make up for the Matanao raid where they suffered heavy losses,” Ka Efren added.
The military
tagged Armodia as the leader of some 100 NPA guerrillas who launched
simultaneous attacks in Matanao in Davao del Sur in March.
Three policemen
were killed when the rebels overran the town’s police station, carrying away 7
M-16 Armalite rifles and 3 service pistols from the policemen.
The guerrillas
also detonated a land mine, hitting a military truck that was sent to reinforce
the policemen.
Nine soldiers and
two rebels were killed in the land mine explosion.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/57169-npa-arrest-leader-afp-nabbed-wrong-person
It's just a "case of mistaken identity" seems to be a standard ploy of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)/New People's Army (NPA) with regard to captured insurgent cadre. Because insurgent leaders often use a nom-de-guerre, it becomes to easy for communist spokespersons to deny that one of its leaders that has been captured with a warrant of arrest under his real name is in fact the person using the underground nom-de-guerre, or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it soon becomes obvious that the captured person is associated with the CPP/NPA when the CPP human rights front, KARAPATAN, along with other CPP front groups, begin to issue propaganda statements in defense of the person being detained by Philippine security forces. His status as an insurgent leader is further reinforced if the National Union of People's Lawyers, a CPP front active in the legal sphere, provides free legal defense for the detainee. Because the question then becomes, "Why would the CPP/NPA waste precious resources in defense of someone that is "not" affiliated with the clandestine Maoist insurgency?"
By the way, Panalipdan (Defend) is a CPP front active on environment issues. the group characterizes itself as "an alliance comprised organizations and individuals united in the defense of the ENVIRONMENT, FOOD SECURITY, LAND RIGHTS AND NATIONAL PATRIMONY against the plunder and destruction of the country’s natural and mineral resources."
ReplyDeleteNowadays, membership in a CPP front group and membership in the NPA are not mutually exclusive. There have been a number of recent examples of front group cadre actively participating in NPA insurgent activity.