I am a member and military officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and have been to many parts of the Bicol Region for various assignments. Our place is considered as one of the country’s hotbeds of insurgency owing to the presence of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National People’s Army, or the NPA.
As a guardian of peace, I highly support President Duterte’s move toward peace talks with the Reds. I have witnessed and experienced endless fightings with them, the runnings, wailings, the bloodsheds and carcasses after fighting. How many more lives will be lost due to the fightings? How many futures will be gone with the wind due to the NPA ideology? I and the other soldiers find it exasperating to have confrontations with our fellow Filipinos, specially Bicolanos. It is high time we gave peace a chance. However, the question is how sincere really are the NPAs? They have changeable minds like chameleons.
Whenever we hear the word chameleon, we probably think of something or someone who has the ability to change colors according to its environment. Seemingly, this is the kind of thinking the CPP-NPA has. Today they want to go through the peace process; after a few days they are back to their barbaric acts by lodging a string of raids/attacks, ambuscades, harassment of government and liquidations and extortions targeting civilians. These acts are exactly the opposite of the prohibitions/restrictions set forth by the government during ceasefires.
When President Duterte declared them as a terrorist organization as a sanction to constrain them from mounting atrocities and to decapitate their force, once more they appeal for the peace talks. As a President who only wants peace, tranquility and development for his people and the nation as a whole, Duterte acceded to such appeal. He gave them a last chance, on the condition that they honor a ceasefire for 60 days. As such, May 8 was the commencement of the said ceasefire, which means that the NPAs are prohibited from mounting armed activities.
Since May 8, however, in the middle of the ceasefire, rounds of violent activities were again perpetrated by the NPAs in the Bicol Region — a proof of their insincerity on the peace talks. Based on our reports, the NPAs harassed the personnel of the Guinobatan Municipal Station on May 13; ambuscade of government forces on May 10 in Libmanan, Camarines Sur; harassment of another government troop on May 12 in Carnalig, Albay; and, raid/attack on Ragay, Camarines Sur on May 13. Four successive encounters were also noted.
What is glaring — we also received reports from people complaining of NPAs’ extortion of money from contractors and big companies, demanding 3 to 10 percent of the total cost of their projects, amounting to millions. What is also glaring is, if these companies failed to give in to the NPAs’ demands, they suffered the consequences. For the contractors of big projects, their equipment were burned, while managers of big companies were harassed.
The New Peoples’ Army, which is already 50 years old, is the longest and strongest insurgency in Asia, notorious for its barbaric acts.
Very truly yours,
(Name withheld upon request for security reasons)
http://www.manilatimes.net/chamelionic-thinking/401403/
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