802 Inf Bde: Death of top NPA leader in Eastern Visayas, Martin Colima (AKA Moki)

Posted to the 82nd Infantry Brigade (8th Infantry Division) Facebook Page (Jan 6, 2024): Death of top NPA leader in Eastern Visayas, Martin Colima (AKA Moki)

National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict
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PRESS STATEMENT

 
The death of Martin Colima alyas Moki, top leader of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) subcommittee in Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee (EVRPC), during combat operations by Army troops last Saturday in Eastern Samar should serve as an eye-opener for the remaining insurgents to lay down their arms, peacefully surrender and avail the government’s amnesty program.

Colima, who was facing a string of multiple heinous crime charges before the courts, and his men entered Barangay San Gabriel, Borongan City oblivious to the strong vigilance of residents in the community against the presence of communist terrorist groups (CTGs).

 
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) call on the remaining members of Colima’s group to peacefully surrender and abandon the senseless armed struggle so as not to suffer the same fate like what happened to their leader.

The politico-military spectrum of the NPA in Samar was the last in the entire archipelago to be weakened from being an active guerilla front.

 
Colima’s death is proof of the weakened state of the NPA and the waning political influence of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on the Filipino masses in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAS).

Most importantly, the CPP-NPA should accept the fact that in Samar every single barangay liberated by the government from the clutches of the CTGs through the “whole-of-nation and whole of government" approach has been transitioning to become a haven of peace wherein economic development is being effectively spurred by the government.

Let the CPP-NPA also know that their presence in these communities is no longer welcome and what happened to the group of Colima should serve as a strong warning against the CTGs. There are no more “NPA mass bases” to speak of that for decades the CTGs had exploited to the detriment of poverty-stricken residents in such communities.

In due time, the NTF-ELCAC through the cohesive leadership of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. the scourge of the CTGs in our country will be totally eliminated. We strongly believe that all the weakened guerrilla fronts will be dismantled within this year.

For the sake of peace, unity, and development, we reiterate our ardent appeal to all the CPP-NPA remnants to choose life rather than face senseless death over a senseless and irrelevant ideology. Go back to your families and become productive and law-abiding citizens and actively participate in nation-building. Over the past five decades, your so-called Maoist-inspired revolutionary ideals became irrelevant if not totally obsolete in contemporary times.

Usec Ernesto C Torres Jr.
Exec Dir, NTF-ELCAC Secretariat

https://www.ntfelcac.org/post/press-statement-1

https://www.facebook.com/802Bde