The public should take the necessary security precautions and remain vigilant as the communist rebels celebrate their 50th founding anniversary on Dec. 26, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Monday.
In a statement released to the Philippine News Agency, the AFP accused Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison of ordering the New People’s Army to escalate attacks and violence over the holidays, despite its declaration of a unilateral ceasefire that the military has rejected.
“The threat of heightened atrocities marks another year of violence and manifests their nature as a terror group that works to undermine the government, disrupt national development, and damage public and private properties—all to the inconvenience of the Filipino people,” said Col. Noel Detoyato, chief of the military’s public information office.
With only atrocities to show for their 50 years in existence, the CPP and NPA have nothing to celebrate and no achievement of which to be proud, he said.
“Our soldiers on the ground and at all levels of command will continue to monitor and conduct security operations against the CPP-NPA-NDF. We are ready to secure any community threatened by them specially during this season of Christmas celebration,” Detoyato said.
He also reminded rebels seeking to return to their families and mainstream society that the lines of communication are always open for those that surrender.
Sison on Monday said the rebels do not feel intimidated by President Rodrigo Duterte’s orders to the troops to destroy the communists.
“Duterte is failing to intimidate the CPP and the revolutionary masses with his ranting and raving. He merely incriminates himself by openly inciting and ordering his armed minions to engage in mass murder on the basis of mere suspicion that entire legal organizations are communist,” said Sison in a statement two days before the 50th founding anniversary of the rebel group.
“He likewise incriminates himself by inciting and ordering his armed minions to ‘hamlet’ the Lumad people and engage in the unlawful confinement or detention of entire communities,” he added.
He said Duterte wanted to replicate the infamous massacre supposedly committed by Indonesian President Suharto in 1965 to 1966.
“What the bloodthirsty tyrant Duterte does not understand is that the PKI [Communist Party of Indonesia] did not have a people’s army and was completely exposed by its participation in parliamentary elections and in the NASAKOM government of Sukarno,” said Sison.
The CPP, on the other hand, has a growing people’s army and has always been clandestine since its founding in 1968.
“As I pointed out earlier, Duterte has to kill 100 to 1,000 non-communists before he can kill a single communist,” Sison said.
“He is definitely succeeding in incriminating and exposing himself as the mastermind of state terrorism and the No.1 violator of human rights in the Philippines,” he added.
Last week, the President said he would implement his plan to hamlet the Lumad this year to protect them from the communists. With PNA
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