Refusing amnesty tantamount to signing death warrant – RTF6 ELCAC

From the Visayan Daily Star (May 2, 2023): Refusing amnesty tantamount to signing death warrant – RTF6 ELCAC (By GILBERT P. BAYORAN)

Unjustifiable refusal of the amnesty proposal being offered by the government to communist rebels is tantamount to signing a death warrant, a spokesman of the Regional Task Force 6 – ELCAC (Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict) said.

In a statement, RTF 6 ELCAC spokesman Flosemer Chris Gonzales said that the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) have shown its true colors of being anti-peace, anti-people, anti-unity and anti-progress by expressing animosity on the amnesty proposal.

In rejecting the amnesty proposal, which aims to erase criminal cases filed against CPP-NPA-NDF members, CPP Chief Information Officer Marco Valbuena said in a statement that the amnesty offer was just a “sugarcoated bullet.”

Valbuena said it was “grossly hypocritical” for AFP chief of staff Gen. Andres Centino to talk about amnesty because he was “directly responsible” for the killings of New People’s Army (NPA) leaders Jorge Madlos in 2021, when Centino was Philippine Army chief, and Rogelio Posadas last April 20 in Negros Occidental.

Gonzales said the CPP-NDF-NPA’s unreasonable, unwarranted, and unjustifiable refusal of the amnesty proposal is the height of gross ignorance that has fatal consequences, which is tantamount to signing a death warrant for communist rebels.

In 2021, the CPP-NPA and its international wing, National Democratic Front, was designated as “terrorist organizations” by the Anti-Terror Council.

https://visayandailystar.com/refusing-amnesty-tantamount-to-signing-death-warrant-rtf6-elcac/