NPA statement (Philippines)

[ken hanly <northsunm@xxxxxxxxx>]

Malacañang planning to deploy death squads in NCR, NPA
says



By Jun P. Yap

03/29/2006



Malacañang is apparently planning to deploy death
squads in Metro Manila with some military agents
having been transferred there from Southern Luzon.

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesman
Gregorio ?Ka Roger? Rosal made this claim yesterday as
the CPP issued a 10-point guideline to the New
People?s Army (NPA) to step up attacks.

?(The Arroyo regime) is poised to unleash the death
squads in the National Capital Region and step up
their actions in provincial cities to complement the
police and military units conducting arbitrary
arrests, searches and seizures and suppressing mass
protest actions,? Rosal said in a statement.

He added this is likely part of the ?Oplan Bantay
Laya? which he said was behind the killing of several
Leftist leaders in the last few weeks.

He cited information reaching him that military agents
from Southern Luzon are now in Metro Manila under the
custody of the Philippine National Police.

?Their transfer to Metro Manila is highly suspected.
It is probable they will be used to carry out hits
against activists and leaders of the oust-Arroyo
movement,? he said.

Rosal added Oplan Bantay Laya is modeled after Plan
Phoenix in Vietnam in the late 1960s which involved
the assassination of people viewed as sympathetic to
the revolutionary movement.

He said the plan is a brainchild of the Cabinet
Oversight Committee for Internal Security (COCIS)
under Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and National
Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales.

Meanwhile, the CPP issued a 10-point guideline to the
NPA, its military arm, on the occasion of the NPA?s
37th anniversary. These include:

? Develop the operational commands of the NPA at the
guerrilla levels, to have the flexibility to employ
small teams and squads (for sniping, sabotage and
punitive operations).

? Maintain the fighting initiative against the enemy,
using the ample mass base from which to launch
tactical offensives and within which the NPA can
maneuver and observe the enemy forces to discover
their weakest points. ?We can choose the time and
place for concentrating our force and deal lethal
blows on the target. We can compel the enemy forces to
make mistakes and become confused on how to deploy his
strategic and tactical units,? it said.

? Fight only battles that it can win, through
ambushes, raids and arrest operations in which it has
the upper hand or the element of surprise.

? Using land mines, small teams and snipers, and when
the enemy force camps, undertake harassment actions
and keep him from taking any rest.

? Continue the nationwide tactical offensives.

? Increase the tactical offensives for seizing weapons
through raids, ambushes and arrest operations against
units and elements of the military, police,
paramilitary and private security agencies.

? Give first place to tactics of annihilation to yield
the most arms, but treat well the enemy survivors and
give medical treatment to the wounded.

? Make the enemy side pay heavily through attritive
actions, observing and studying lines and means of
transport, installations, depots and other facilities
that are vital to the enemy.

? Ensure that revolutionary propaganda reach the enemy
troops, remind them of the oppressed and exploited
conditions of their families and the toiling masses
and persuade them to join the armed revolution.

? Give no quarters to the worst and most notorious
among the reactionaries: those most culpable for
directing and carrying out repression, human rights
violations, plunder, destruction of the environment
and the drug trade.

Rosal said the NPA now operates in more than 120
guerrilla zones covering 800 municipalities in 70 of
79 provinces. Each guerrilla front has an optimal
strength of one company with high-powered rifles,
divisible into three platoons with one serving as the
center of gravity.

The CPP noted the Arroyo government has maliciously
adopted the United States slogan of ?war on terror? as
a license to oppress the people, especially workers
and peasants.

?In the use of brute force, the regime has leaped from
the so-called preemptive calibrated response of
preventing the people from exercising their right to
free assembly and speech to the usurpation of martial
law powers under the guise of a declaration of a state
of national emergency like Proclamation 1017. Even
after this proclamation was lifted as a result of
public outrage, the Arroyo regime continues to make
warrant-less arrests, indefinite detention, raids and
threats of closing down mass media and taking over
public utilities,? it said.