/PRESS STATEMENT
31 January 2007
Fr. Santiago "Sanny" Salas
Spokesperson in Eastern Visayas
National Democratic Front of the Philippines/
NPA OFFENSIVES HIT LEGITIMATE TARGETS
WHILE MILITARY DEATH SQUADS ATTACK CIVILIANS
The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today commended the
Arnulfo Ortiz Command of the New People's Army in Western Samar for
punishing notorious warlord and criminal kingpin Mayor Benito Astorga in
the island municipality of Daram last Jan. 25. According to the NDF-EV,
the AOC also earlier caught up with and punished in the capital town of
Catbalogan two fascist death squad members, military intelligence agent
Augusto Daclitan on Jan. 17 and Army Sgt. Apolinario Parambita last Dec.
21. But the NDF-EV also assailed the military for using fascist death
squads for reprisals against civilians in response to the NPA offensives.
Fr. Santiago Salas, NDF-EV spokesperson, said that in contrast to the
military, the NPA carries out offensives only against legitimate targets.
"Mayor Benito Astorga was a legitimate target of the NPA because of his
active participation in the armed hostilities. He was a reactionary
die-hard who collaborated with the military in directing a widespread
intelligence network as well as in actively supporting military
operations against the revolutionary movement that also harmed the
people. He likewise supported and maintained up to 180 Cafgu
paramilitaries who doubled as his private army, aside from having a
squad of goons as his personal bodyguard. Astorga used his official
position and private army to actively resist the NPA and to harass and
murder suspected NPA supporters and those who opposed his rule. He was
also a criminal kingpin whose goons engaged in piracy since the 1990s in
the waters surrounding Daram, and a landgrabber who robbed the poor
peasants of practically the entire land area in two barangays.
"As cohorts in a covert unit run by the military, Daclitan and Parambita
were likewise liable for military action by the NPA. They had been
actively engaged in espionage and the killings of progressive legal
activists since 2005 when they begun under Gen. Jovito Palparan.
Daclitan was an agent of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of
the Philippines. To obscure his vicious record and military service, the
military and its puppet Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy now claim
that he was an uninvolved civilian as ANAD's regional coordinator. But
in fact a truckload of soldiers even escorted Daclitan's funeral -- an
explicit gesture that they were burying one of their own.
On the other hand, Fr. Salas slammed the military, saying that, "The
military is cowardly and despicable in attacking innocent civilians who
are not involved in armed hostilities. We condemn the murder in
Catbalogan last Jan. 29 of Dominador de Luna, a member of Bayan Muna
whose wife, Concepcion, is also the organization's provincial
coordinator as well as a Provincial Board member. We likewise condemn
the Jan. 27 assassination attempt on Bayan regional spokesperson Flor
Acbo in Tacloban City.
"The recent Melo Commission report merely weakly asserts what is a
glaring reality in Eastern Visayas and elsewhere: the military is
slaughtering civilians. The much-ballyhooed Oplan Bantay Laya I and II
of the Arroyo regime is targeting not so much the NPA but the civilian
populace. With continuing battlefield losses at the hands of the NPA,
the military increasingly resorts to attacking the civilian populace in
urban and rural areas. Dominador de Luna and Flor Acbo were targeted by
the military after the NPA's successful offensives in Western Samar. Two
weeks ago, activist Prof. Jose Ma. Cui was murdered in Northern Samar
after the military lost the equivalent of a platoon to the NPA in the
last months of 2006."
Fr. Salas concluded that, "It is political repression that is really
keeping Gloria Arroyo in power, and from now to the May elections, the
Arroyo regime's escalating fascist state terrorism against the
progressive party-list groups and other opponents will be the worst sort
of electioneering by the regime. But such only underscores that it is
just for the people to stand up and fight for their rights during this
period and in the continuing struggle to bring the regime to account.
For its part, the NPA is supportive of the people's struggle to end the
Arroyo regime, and is committed to stepping up its offensives against
the most hated military and police units to hasten the weakening and
downfall of the regime."#
Roy Santos
NDF-EV Media Officer
+639196199369
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