Philippines: CPP orders New People’s Army to intensify attacks
Philippine Daily Inquirer
September 05, 2010
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to step up offensives in Mindanao.
Jorge Madlos, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF), said in a statement that the NPA was told to attack “legitimate military targets” as a form of “resisting renewed [military] offensive activities.”
Madlos said the call for increased offensive action was meant “to meet head-on” increased military operations under the extended counter-insurgency campaign, Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).
“[The CPP] is moving to thwart government’s goal of crushing the Maoist revolutionary movement in three years as laid out by the new administration of President Benigno Aquino III,” he said.
Madlos said a similar order was also relayed to NPA units in other parts of the country.
“It is very clear that the brisk military activities in Mindanao are a direct result of the extension of the OBL campaign,” he said.
The OBL campaign was originally set to end June 2010 but Aquino sought to extend its implementation until the end of this year, Madlos said.
He criticized Aquino for “consciously waging war early in his term of office,” because this would clearly diminish the opportunity for achieving peace.
In his State of the Nation Address, Aquino had declared the government’s willingness to restart the stalled talks with the communists, but challenged communist rebels to show goodwill.
Madlos said it was very clear that the Aquino administration was “preparing for war and not for creating an environment conducive to just peace.”
Madlos said the NPA was ready to reciprocate the government’s action, citing recent attacks by the rebel group.
He said during the past two months, the NPA has staged 50 offensives that resulted in 17 casualties on the government side.
The offensives, he said, were concentrated in the northeastern and southern Mindanao regions.
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Communist rebels chide Aquino for Bantay-Laya extension
09/01/2010
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Communist rebels on Wednesday accused President Benigno Aquino III of preferring military operations than pursuing peace talks to end decades of bloody fighting in the country. Jorge Madlos, spokesman for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said Aquino has ordered more deployment of troops and intensified military operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) across the country.
He said Aquino also allowed the military to extend its controversial anti-insurgency campaign, Oplan Bantay-Laya, which expired June this year. “The extension of the Arroyo regime’s brutal nine-year anti-insurgency campaign Oplan Bantay-Laya exposes Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III’s real ‘peace’ plan: to step up military offensives against the New People’s Army,” Madlos said. Oplan Bantay-Laya has been blamed for the spate of alleged government-sponsored killings of activists and suspected supporters of communist rebels, an accusation that the military has repeatedly denied. “Oplan Bantay-Laya spawned the extrajudicial killings of more than a thousand ordinary civilians, peasants and worker leaders, activists, religious and journalists, and committed countless other human rights abuses, including the dislocation of the socio-economic well-being of the people in the countryside,” Madlos said.
He said because of Oplan Bantay-Laya, rebel forces also intensified their attacks in the country, particularly in Mindanao. Madlos said it is the first time in recent history for a new government to have deliberately opted to wage war nearly as soon as it was installed. He said the NDFP in Mindanao fears that peace talks are once again in danger of being derailed because of the extension of the Oplan Bantay-Laya. He also appealed to the public to demand the government to pursue the peace process and remove all obstructions that hinder its realization.
Government peace talks with the NPA collapsed in 2004 after rebels accused then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of reneging on several agreements, among them the release of all political prisoners in the country and the removal of the terrorist tag on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political wing, the NDFP. - KBK, GMANews.TV
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