NDF-Negros Island Salutes Martyred Peace Consultants

Bayani Obrero | Spokesperson | NDF-Negros Island | National Democratic Front Of The Philippines

June 1, 2021

National Democratic Front (NDF) Negros Island through a statement was outraged on the brutal murders of its comrades Rustico Luna Tan and Reynaldo Bocala. It also saluted them for their contributions to the GRP-NDFP peace talks in their capacity as peace consultants.

On May 28 Tan and Bocala were simultaneously killed around 8:00 in in the evening in Cebu and Iloilo respectively. Tan was shot six times on his face and torso by yet unidentified assailants at his home in Camotes Island, Cebu. Meanwhile, Bocala was allegedly killed in a Philippine National Police – Crime Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) raid in a subdivision at Pavia, Iloilo.

“Duterte’s ‘kill them all’ and ‘take no prisoners’ tirade has clearly roused his death squads within state forces to kill with impunity,” said Obrero.

Obrero added that the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are quick to manufacture a semblance of victory over the revolutionary movement by going after defenseless civilians, killing on a rampage and exploiting the local government units and the courts.

In another statement, Ka Juanito Magbanua, spokesperson of the Apolinario Gatmaitan Command of the New People’s Army in Negros Island (AGC-NPA), said that the military’s claims of defeating the NPA is an overused publicity stunt to coverup the failure of its “counter-insurgency” campaign under Oplan Kapanatagan and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“In Negros’ revolutionary history, all brigade commanders assigned to Negros were unsuccessful in their declaration to destroy or weaken the revolutionary movement,” Magbanua added.

According to Magbanua, the revolutionary forces in Negros Island led by the Communist Party of the Philippines is in a strong position to face and defeat the plan of the tyrannical regime to decimate the revolutionary movement. It is ready to defend the political power it established in the countryside and the welfare of the people.

“The NPA will continue to launch tactical offensives to raise the level of the people’s war and punish those who have blood debts against the people and the revolutionary movement,” Magbanua said.

Also, Obrero called on all Negrosanons to shatter the culture of fear and impunity sown by Duterte and his goons and unite to overcome Duterte’s tyrannical rule in the country.

Source : https://cpp.ph/statements/ndf-negros-salutes-martyred-comrades/