COMMENTARY//Satur et al. fighting at ground level and under

Commentary posted to the Manila Times (Oct 9, 2020): COMMENTARY//Satur et al. fighting at ground level and under

THE communist New People’s Army (NPA) in Albay and Mindoro ambushed Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel recently. They also killed two Indigenous People (IP) leaders who were known rabid anti-communist advocates in Surigao.

These are isolated incidents and have been part of a bigger Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) plan, which they failed to execute for more than 10 months now, thanks primarily to the support of the people to the efforts of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).

The incidents were statements: “Bago man lang tayo malaos na nang husto, makabawi man lang kahit papaano (Before we really become so dated, let’s eke out some little gains).”

This is what the droves of surrenderees are saying. “Wala na ang dati naming suporta mula sa masa (Gone is the support we used to enjoy from the masses).” The recent surrender by groups of three or four or more is also a statement: many of these fighters are convinced that they are a dying breed, and that now is the time to lay down their arms.

Meantime, while the attacks of underground units wane, the efforts of the CPP cadres aboveground persist, out of desperation to keep the movement afloat. At ground level, CPP cadres Ka Satur Ocampo, Rep. Carlos Zarate, and the “Kamatayan” bloc, including Karapatan, continue with their attacks on the bureaucracy, keeping hostage the agencies’ budget. After the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), it’s the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency’s (NICA) turn.

‘Kamatayan’ bloc

NICA chief Alex Monteagudo has spoken in absolute terms about the Kamatayan bloc being members of the CPP. What could be truer than this truth? As head of the repository of all intelligence of every government agency, he should know. He is the most credible person to declare what PCCO Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy and all have been saying all along. One cannot be nominated by the CPP to any of the Kamatayan bloc party-list if they are not card-carrying members of this terrorist organization.

As members of the CPP they are responsible for everything that the terrorist NPA has done like the recent killing of Datu Bocales and Zaldy Maca, both former NPA members but have since helped many NPA rebels return to the fold of the law and live peaceful lives. They were also instrumental in exposing the real agenda of the CPP alternative learning schools like Tribal Indigenous Peoples Surigao Sur (TRIFPSS) which were eventually closed by DepEd.

Just like what Jose Ma Sison did, former NPA members like Datu Jumar Bucales and Datu Rico Maca have tagged the Kamatayan bloc as part of the terrorist organizations. It is not NICA or any of the government officials who red-tagged them; they are simply echoing what needs to be known by our people in order to protect their children from the exploitation of these groups, as well as prevent the IPs from further exploitation. These counter-revolutionary acts of the two IP leaders so enraged the CPP/NPA leadership that they have been sentenced to die, adding to the deaths of thousands more victims of CPP/NPA attacks in the past years.

We demand that Rep. Eufemia Cullamat comment on these IP killings. Can she offer any justification for the killing of her constituents? Or will she be mum about this, knowing that her own siblings who are NPA members, or her husband who is also facing criminal cases, are responsible for the killings.

These members of the Kamatayan bloc have forgotten that they too are public officials who have sworn allegiance to the Philippine flag. Their duality, however, requires them to take an oath too to the CPP constitution, with an M16 bullet gripped in a closed fist, to signify that they embrace the use of violence to achieve their end: to overthrow our democratic government and supplant it with a “democratic dictatorship” (CPP Constitution Art 3 Sec 7).

Terrorist actions

Rep. Zarate, when you invoke Republic Act 6713, and require public officials like DG Monteagudo of NICA, to act with professionalism and the highest degree of integrity, should that not in fact remind you that we are all in the same boat? Shouldn’t it tell you that as elected officials, even if nominated by the CPP, you should do what you can to protect our citizens from the atrocities being committed by the NPA? Shouldn’t it be your job too, to expose the identity of these terrorists who pose a big threat to our children? To our IPs? To the poor and marginalized? If you don’t because of your oath to the CPP, then you will be liable under Sec 15 of the Anti-Terrorism Law for grave misconduct and disloyalty to the Republic and the Filipino people.

So with Satur Ocampo. In his At Ground Level column (Philippine Star, Oct.3, 2020), he asserts that the NTF-Elcac is the prime purveyor of tagging activists and progressive people’s organizations as terrorists and enemies of the state. He cites United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s deep concern about these incidents (red tagging leading to the killing of targeted individual groups or organs). But with his involvement in the CPP underground, Ka Satur knows that all of these tagged organizations are indeed red. By virtue of their plans and actions, they all conspire to commit terrorist action and violate Sec 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL). The Kamatayan bloc all incite to commit terror acts by their speeches, writings, banners, in violation of Section 9 of the ATL. They also know they are guilty of violating Section 10 — recruitment to a terror organization.

All of them also know that most of the fabricated information provided to the UN came from CPP affiliates in the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, including Ibon and Karapatan, the objective of which is to continue to project that the Philippine government displays a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant abuse of authority — a tyrant. To what end? For Jose Ma Sison to invoke non-refoulement and evade the possibility of being sent home to answer for his continuing crimes of genocide and murder?

Karapatan called on the AFP, PNP and NTF-Elcac to disclose the advocacy groups and the Facebook accounts they are supporting, asking, “how much of peoples’ taxes they are spending on government fake online prop machinery taken down by Facebook.” Cristina Palabay of Karapatan has heaps of issues to explain about NPA violations of human rights.

Meantime, let the Kamatayan bloc explain their involvement in the CPP. Their membership in the CPP is legal so why deny it? But does it justify as well the illegal, murderous actions of the CPP/NPA? Let’s hear it from them.

BY LT. GEN. ANTONIO PARLADE JR.
The author is chief of the AFP Southern Luzon Command and spokesman for the NTF-Elcac.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/10/09/opinion/analysis/satur-et-al-fighting-at-ground-level-and-under/778151/