CPP/Ang Bayan: AFP operations in Sorsogon victimize 4 civilians

Propaganda article from the English language edition of Ang Bayan posted to the CPP Website (Jun 7): AFP operations in Sorsogon victimize 4 civilians

Four civilians, including a baby, have been added to the list of victims of a military operation conducted by the 903rd Brigade which has been ravaging Sorsogon since April. Under the 903rd Brigade are the 31st IB, the 5th Scout Ranger Company and other military forces.

In Matnog. The 31st IB had a family in its crosshairs when it attacked a New People’s Army squad in Sitio Hukdong, Barangay Balocaue on May 23.

At 5:45 a.m., the military encircled a group of Red fighters resting temporarily near the house of the Garduque family. Minutes after shots rang out, Elias Garduque lay dead, and his wife Cynthia and their year-old baby seriously wounded.

The soldiers ignored the mother and child for more than nine hours and brought them to hospital only at 3 p.m. They stopped other villagers who rushed to the site after hearing the shots and offered to help the victims.

Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala, 903rd Bde chief, automatically branded the Garduque couple as NPA guerrillas. Worse, he declared that the military operation was conducted without any collateral damage, even if the Garduques’ baby was seriously wounded in the gunbattle.

In Casiguran. The 31st IB Alpha Coy shot and killed Joseph Benson, a resident of Barangay Inlagadian, in the early hours of May 9. Benson was ambushed in Barangay Escuala while walking home from a funeral wake that was being held near the 31st IB Alpha Coy headquarters in Barangay Casay of the same town. The soldiers who killed Benson admitted to some local residents that they suspected the victim to be among the NPA operatives who ambushed their troops in Barangay San Juan last April.

The military had threatened residents of Barangay San Juan on April 29 that they would “wipe out” all suspected NPA supporters in Casiguran town after a successful ambush in the area by a unit under the Celso Minguez Command (NPA-Sorsogon). Killed in the ambush was Cpl. Edison Capital. A cal .45 pistol was likewise seized. The NPA is currently contacting Benson’s family for appropriate action.

In Bulan. Troopers of the 31st IB conductiong operations in the interior villages of Bulan and Matnog shamelessly stole a motorized boat at 10:30 p.m. on May 5. The victim was the Masujer family of Barangay Sagrada. The soldiers had gone to the Masujers on the morning of May 5 to seize the family’s boat, claiming it was owned by the NPA. Mrs. Marife Masujer was able to stop the soldier-thieves from taking the boat. But the troopers returned that night to take it and use it to ferry 30 soldiers of the 31st IB towards Bulan town.

Out of fear, the Masujer family has temporarily transferred to a relative’s house in another village. They have since been unable to earn a living because their livelihood depends solely on fishing.

In Sorsogon City. Village chair Eddie Albor of Barangay Cococabitan was accused of being an NPA member on April 27 after an encounter between an NPA team and a composite force of 31st IB and 5th SR Coy troopers that resulted in the death of a Red fighter. Albor was illegally detained at the Sorsogon City District Jail on trumped-up charges to coerce him into signing a sworn statement falsely identifying the NPA casualty as a high-ranking NPA cadre to enable the military to collect a ₱2.5 million bounty on the cadre’s head. Albor was promised his freedom in exchange for his signature, but he remains in detention.

[Ang Bayan is the official news organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines and is issued by the CPP Central Committee. It provides news about the work of the Party as well as its analysis of and views on current issues. Ang Bayan comes out fortnightly and is published in Pilipino, Bisaya, Ilokano, Waray, Hiligaynon and English.]

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20140607/afp-operations-in-sorsogon-victimize-4-civilians