NDF/NPA-FSMR: Fake surrenders is a ploy to cover up AFP’s vicious transgressions in Daguma

NPA-Far South Mindanao Region propaganda statement posted to the National Democratic Front Website (Feb 6): Fake surrenders is a ploy to cover up AFP’s vicious transgressions in Daguma

Valentin Palamine Regional Operations Command
Far South Mindanao Region, NEW PEOPLE’S ARMY
Press statement | 05 February 2018

The AFP and PNP’s vaunt on the alleged 32 NPA who turned over is an exceedingly bloated lie. The apparent “surrenderees” reportedly received cash assistance from the Sultan Kudarat provincial government while the AFP has promised to compensate those who have surrendered their guns. The AFP further disclosed that there were eight other “surrenderees” they are currently processing.

Such is a pretentious fabrication to shield military transgressions against the people in Daguma. The Dulangan-Manobo and T’boli masses are aware that the apparent “surrenderees” presented by the AFP to the public are their folks who were accused as NPA members and charged with trump up cases. They were relentlessly harassed and threatened by the military, and were gulled by false promises of easy money if they yield.

Fake surrenders become a means of the AFP and PNP officials to earn from the government’s amnesty program. The unaware and vulnerable “surrenderees” become their sources for pocketing the amnesty fund and livelihood assistance for the rebel returnees. Recruiting more “surrenderees” is also an ostensive “achievement” for attaining promotions.

Coercion and fake surrenders is a ploy devised by the AFP to prop up their futile effort to protect Consunji’s monopoly interest in Daguma Range and secure DMCI’s impending large-scale mining operations. They would often brag that the “surrenderees” are proofs of their ostentatious claim that the revolutionary influence in the area is waning and that the armed resistance of the masses is already defeated.

The AFP’s task in Daguma obviously is to disintegrate the staunch struggle of the Lumads for land and self-determination. Under Duterte’s militarist rule, reclaiming the lumad’s land and defending the ancestral domain has become a crime and the land grabber despotic landlord Consunji is the victim all along.

Perhaps only the most vicious and greediest oligarchs like Consunji deserve to be protected by the fascist state forces. He is a powerful terrorist and criminal who imposes crimes and transgressions with impunity such as land grabbing, countless killings, burning of lumad dwellings, looting and destruction of properties, harassments and threats.

A few of the most heinous crimes committed by Consunji’s private armed mercenaries and hired AFP forces includes the murder of Datu Jakang Abag and 23 members of his family (1979), the slaughtering of 8 lumads in Kedakelan, Esperanza (1989), various slaying incidents and massacres that killed more than a hundred persons in Kanalan, Tubak, Esperanza (decade of 1990), the murder of Dulangan-Manobo activist John Calaba (2015), and the massacre of the 8 T’boli-Manobo peasants led by Datu Victor Danyan Sr. in Sityo Datal Bonglangon, Brgy. Ned, Lake Sebu.

In spite of the incessant state attacks, the lumads are determined in advancing their struggle and are firm against the deceptions that seek to weaken their resistance. The reactionary state must be denounced for degrading the legitimacy of the lumad’s struggle for self-determination.

All revolutionary forces and the masses must firmly defy all forms of threats and deceptions. In any event, the people who have a worthy understanding of the social realities and the masses’ struggle are always distrustful of the AFP’s falsehoods and pretentions.

Ka Dencio Madrigal
Spokesperson, VPROC-FSMR
https://www.ndfp.org/fake-surrenders-ploy-cover-afps-vicious-transgressions-daguma/