The enemies of democracy have proudly proclaimed that they will achieve strategic stalemate within the next 5 years. The claim is no less than a bluff. The triumphant mood of the CPPs 41st anniversary statement is a farce.
The accomplishments of the 4th Infantry (DIAMOND) Division of the Philippine Army for the year 2009 speak of tremendous setbacks and defeat on the part of the CPP-NPA-NDF. Over a 12-month period, the operations of the 4ID troopers have led to the following results:
• 45 camps were overrun
• Three(3) top leaders of the CPP were captured
• 241 NPAs and Milisya ng Bayan surrendered to government authorities
• 107 NPAs were killed in action
• 53 NPAs had been wounded
• 10 NPAs were captured
• 282 firearms were recovered consisting of 129 high-powered and 159 low-powered firearms
These figures speak only of one thing: the CPPs capacity is dwindling and diminishing. The CPPs armed struggle is on its way to the graveyard of oblivion as it continues to feed into the violent revolution the lives of young men and women whom it uses as pawns in its war for political and economic power.
But even as the 4th Infantry Division remains confident that it will be able to bring the insurgency to its demise within the coming months, the people should not let their guards down. The vigilance should continue without letup. The level of cooperation and collaboration between local institutions, local organizations, government line agencies, private sector, and the government troops should be strengthened so that more gains can be accomplished in the coming months.
It was the people’s support to the internal security campaign that made possible the success and accomplishments of the 4th Infantry Division. It will still be their continued cooperation and collaboration that will bring more gains for the campaign, and victory for democracy.
As the year 2010 begins, it is but proper to raise the call:
Rally the people to defend democracy!
Sustain the momentum of the campaign to end the insurgency!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The CPPs 41st Anniversary Statement: Hollow Claims, Wishful Thinking!
Nothing could be more absurd than the pronouncements of the Communist Party of the Philippines that they will gain a strategic leap in its armed struggle from Strategic Defensive to Strategic Stalemate within the next five (5) years. This is not to say, however, that the CPP cannot indulge in daydreaming and wishful thinking. They have every right to weave its own ambitious plans and targets. But the public has every right to know the real score, lest they may be terrified by the claims of the CPP, which is the only political party in the Philippines who rejoice in using and espousing violence by virtue of its private army—the New People’s Army.
In the Area of Responsibility of the 4th Infantry (DIAMOND) Division, the CPP-NPA has suffered tremendous setbacks especially in the area of coverage of Guerilla Front 89 where People’s Militia and NPA regulars have surrendered en masse to government authorities. The effective coverage of Front 89 includes a major part of the Province Bukidnon, part of Misamis Oriental, and part of Agusan del Norte. Statements from the rebels who have opted to go back to the fold of the law would indicate that the freedom of movement of the guerilla units have been severely constricted owing to the rejection of the communities, the presence of government troops in the identified guerilla bases, and the participation of local organizations and local government institutions in the drive to neutralize the insurgents.
The CPP-NPA could not claim that they have not been weakened by the government’s Internal Security campaign. Days before the celebration of the CPPs anniversary, a major encampment in Barangay Concepcion, Valencia City, Province of Bukidnon, was overrun in an encounter that left 14 NPA guerillas dead, while three were captured, and 15 others were wounded. The encounter prevented the North Central Mindanao Regional Committee to push through with its planned plenum in time for the CPP anniversary celebration. The plenum of the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee following its anniversary celebration in Marihatag, Surigao del Sur had also been disrupted by operating troops of the 4th Infantry Division, resulting to the capture of the Vice Commanding Officer of Front 19. Also, recent operations led to the discovery of encampments in the different provinces where caches of explosives have been recovered such as the ones found in Barangay St. Peter, Malaybalay City. All these indicate that the CPPs dens are extremely vulnerable and that their area of operation is getting smaller every day. There is no way the guerilla bases can be expanded further.
Front 89 is in the verge of collapse especially because many of its combatants are extremely demoralized resulting from a series of blunders and setbacks exacerbated by the arrest of the most senior party leader in North Central Mindanao Region, the rejection by the communities of the NPAs presence, and the mass surrender of regulars and Milisya ng Bayan members. The other fronts are equally vulnerable as well, and their days are numbered. The dismantling of these fronts is a matter of months now; which could mean that the run up to the anniversary of the New People’s Army in March 2010 will be characterized by waves upon waves of setbacks and defeat. The NPAs anniversary celebration will be marked with the painful realization of the futility of the armed struggle and the bankruptcy of the Maoist guerilla warfare.
In this light, the CPPs proud announcement that it will soon achieve strategic stalemate within the next 5 years is ironic, if not ridiculous. The last 12 months saw their forces dwindling in significant proportions. The anniversary should have been an opportune time for the CPP to start asking itself why it is not winning.
But more ironic is the fact that after four decades of wasting the lives and talents of committed and competent individuals, the CPP continues to brag about winning the revolution when all that it could show in the last 41 years is the endless cycle of guerilla zone recovery. The last four decades had the CPP-NPA showing its capacity to ruin the lives of community people, but neither has it shown its capacity to promote peace and development, nor has it established its capacity to gain strategic victory.
Among its cadres and dedicated activists, the CPP leadership has endlessly woven a fabric of illusion about victory in the near future. Yet countless lives have already been wasted, and countless lives more will be wasted unless the CPP leadership realizes that the only way forward is through the ways of peace.
The 41st Anniversary Statement speaks of building one guerilla platoon per municipality, and the deployment of urban partisans to launch intensified urban warfare, while at the same time mobilizing more legal organizations to advance their armed revolution both in the urban centers and in the countryside. All these are but motherhood statements that will never see the light of day. All their claims about sowing more violence to achieve their ends will be faced with the raging waves of the people’s rejection and resistance.
The claims regarding the advance in the mobilization of legal front organizations in the urban centers are loaded with deceit. Farmers and indigenous peoples who attended the human rights day demonstration in Cagayan de Oro City last December 10, 2009 were reportedly invited to a picnic by the beach, only to end up marching in the streets under the heat of the sun. The footage of interviews done by ABS-CBN Cagayan de Oro is proof enough that marginalized sectors are simply deceived.
The CPP-NPA-NDF does not speak for the majority of the people. The CPPs violent revolution cannot be the medium through which the Filipinos could weave their dreams and realize their aspirations. Majority of the Filipino people long for peace even as they continue to dream of a society where government instrumentalities are more responsive and where equality and justice reign. The Filipinos have realized, after years of political turmoil and instability, that the means to achieve the collective desire for development and progress is through solidarity and cooperation, and not through wars that victimize both combatants and innocent civilians alike.
If the Filipino people love the ways of peace, for whom does the CPP-NPA-NDF speak? Whose option is it to rise up in arms, burn public utilities and the productive equipment of private companies such as what they did to SUDECOR, DOLE, and several other companies in Agusan, Bukidnon, and Surigao employing hundreds of workers, and launch assassination and liquidation of civilians and government personnel who never have the opportunity for a fair and impartial trial in a duly recognized courts of justice.
The CPP-NPA-NDF speaks only for itself. It is totally detached and alienated from the people it sought to serve, which is why it cannot attain victory. If not for its private army—the NPA who roam around the remote villages brandishing their firearms, it would not have been able to recruit people into their side. The NPAs are only able to organize communities only insofar as they are able to sow fear among the villagers. And their capacity to inflict pain among the lowly farmers and indigenous people in the countryside is the only reason why remote communities allow the NPAs to use their villages as their hiding place, their training center, and their staging ground for criminal acts against the people.
It is upon these reasons that the CPPs 41st Anniversary Statement is deemed as wishful thinking. There is no way the masses of people will allow them to succeed especially when its promise of social change is as rotten as its means to accomplish it.
The CPP-NPA-NDF should be honest enough to tell its rank and file and its sympathizers that the material conditions necessary for the advance of their violent revolution do not exist. The vulnerability of their guerilla fronts and guerilla bases, their limited number of supporters relative to the population of the different provinces and municipalities, and their inability to present itself as the rightful alternative to the prevailing social order are all but concrete obstacles to realizing their desired victory.
There is no way the Communist Party of the Philippines can ever achieve its goals. The future will be brighter for the Filipino people if the CPP-NPA-NDF lay down their arms, and pursue their advocacies using the parameters and avenues that nurture solidarity and cooperation among the people, and promote peace for everyone.
Finally, the CPP’s North Central Mindanao Regional Committee and the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee must realize that their strategic defeat is about to commence. Not only are they extremely vulnerable, the CPP itself has degenerated into a company of extortionists and manipulators, and its slogans are beginning to sound like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal that annoy and irritate the common people.
In the Area of Responsibility of the 4th Infantry (DIAMOND) Division, the CPP-NPA has suffered tremendous setbacks especially in the area of coverage of Guerilla Front 89 where People’s Militia and NPA regulars have surrendered en masse to government authorities. The effective coverage of Front 89 includes a major part of the Province Bukidnon, part of Misamis Oriental, and part of Agusan del Norte. Statements from the rebels who have opted to go back to the fold of the law would indicate that the freedom of movement of the guerilla units have been severely constricted owing to the rejection of the communities, the presence of government troops in the identified guerilla bases, and the participation of local organizations and local government institutions in the drive to neutralize the insurgents.
The CPP-NPA could not claim that they have not been weakened by the government’s Internal Security campaign. Days before the celebration of the CPPs anniversary, a major encampment in Barangay Concepcion, Valencia City, Province of Bukidnon, was overrun in an encounter that left 14 NPA guerillas dead, while three were captured, and 15 others were wounded. The encounter prevented the North Central Mindanao Regional Committee to push through with its planned plenum in time for the CPP anniversary celebration. The plenum of the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee following its anniversary celebration in Marihatag, Surigao del Sur had also been disrupted by operating troops of the 4th Infantry Division, resulting to the capture of the Vice Commanding Officer of Front 19. Also, recent operations led to the discovery of encampments in the different provinces where caches of explosives have been recovered such as the ones found in Barangay St. Peter, Malaybalay City. All these indicate that the CPPs dens are extremely vulnerable and that their area of operation is getting smaller every day. There is no way the guerilla bases can be expanded further.
Front 89 is in the verge of collapse especially because many of its combatants are extremely demoralized resulting from a series of blunders and setbacks exacerbated by the arrest of the most senior party leader in North Central Mindanao Region, the rejection by the communities of the NPAs presence, and the mass surrender of regulars and Milisya ng Bayan members. The other fronts are equally vulnerable as well, and their days are numbered. The dismantling of these fronts is a matter of months now; which could mean that the run up to the anniversary of the New People’s Army in March 2010 will be characterized by waves upon waves of setbacks and defeat. The NPAs anniversary celebration will be marked with the painful realization of the futility of the armed struggle and the bankruptcy of the Maoist guerilla warfare.
In this light, the CPPs proud announcement that it will soon achieve strategic stalemate within the next 5 years is ironic, if not ridiculous. The last 12 months saw their forces dwindling in significant proportions. The anniversary should have been an opportune time for the CPP to start asking itself why it is not winning.
But more ironic is the fact that after four decades of wasting the lives and talents of committed and competent individuals, the CPP continues to brag about winning the revolution when all that it could show in the last 41 years is the endless cycle of guerilla zone recovery. The last four decades had the CPP-NPA showing its capacity to ruin the lives of community people, but neither has it shown its capacity to promote peace and development, nor has it established its capacity to gain strategic victory.
Among its cadres and dedicated activists, the CPP leadership has endlessly woven a fabric of illusion about victory in the near future. Yet countless lives have already been wasted, and countless lives more will be wasted unless the CPP leadership realizes that the only way forward is through the ways of peace.
The 41st Anniversary Statement speaks of building one guerilla platoon per municipality, and the deployment of urban partisans to launch intensified urban warfare, while at the same time mobilizing more legal organizations to advance their armed revolution both in the urban centers and in the countryside. All these are but motherhood statements that will never see the light of day. All their claims about sowing more violence to achieve their ends will be faced with the raging waves of the people’s rejection and resistance.
The claims regarding the advance in the mobilization of legal front organizations in the urban centers are loaded with deceit. Farmers and indigenous peoples who attended the human rights day demonstration in Cagayan de Oro City last December 10, 2009 were reportedly invited to a picnic by the beach, only to end up marching in the streets under the heat of the sun. The footage of interviews done by ABS-CBN Cagayan de Oro is proof enough that marginalized sectors are simply deceived.
The CPP-NPA-NDF does not speak for the majority of the people. The CPPs violent revolution cannot be the medium through which the Filipinos could weave their dreams and realize their aspirations. Majority of the Filipino people long for peace even as they continue to dream of a society where government instrumentalities are more responsive and where equality and justice reign. The Filipinos have realized, after years of political turmoil and instability, that the means to achieve the collective desire for development and progress is through solidarity and cooperation, and not through wars that victimize both combatants and innocent civilians alike.
If the Filipino people love the ways of peace, for whom does the CPP-NPA-NDF speak? Whose option is it to rise up in arms, burn public utilities and the productive equipment of private companies such as what they did to SUDECOR, DOLE, and several other companies in Agusan, Bukidnon, and Surigao employing hundreds of workers, and launch assassination and liquidation of civilians and government personnel who never have the opportunity for a fair and impartial trial in a duly recognized courts of justice.
The CPP-NPA-NDF speaks only for itself. It is totally detached and alienated from the people it sought to serve, which is why it cannot attain victory. If not for its private army—the NPA who roam around the remote villages brandishing their firearms, it would not have been able to recruit people into their side. The NPAs are only able to organize communities only insofar as they are able to sow fear among the villagers. And their capacity to inflict pain among the lowly farmers and indigenous people in the countryside is the only reason why remote communities allow the NPAs to use their villages as their hiding place, their training center, and their staging ground for criminal acts against the people.
It is upon these reasons that the CPPs 41st Anniversary Statement is deemed as wishful thinking. There is no way the masses of people will allow them to succeed especially when its promise of social change is as rotten as its means to accomplish it.
The CPP-NPA-NDF should be honest enough to tell its rank and file and its sympathizers that the material conditions necessary for the advance of their violent revolution do not exist. The vulnerability of their guerilla fronts and guerilla bases, their limited number of supporters relative to the population of the different provinces and municipalities, and their inability to present itself as the rightful alternative to the prevailing social order are all but concrete obstacles to realizing their desired victory.
There is no way the Communist Party of the Philippines can ever achieve its goals. The future will be brighter for the Filipino people if the CPP-NPA-NDF lay down their arms, and pursue their advocacies using the parameters and avenues that nurture solidarity and cooperation among the people, and promote peace for everyone.
Finally, the CPP’s North Central Mindanao Regional Committee and the North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee must realize that their strategic defeat is about to commence. Not only are they extremely vulnerable, the CPP itself has degenerated into a company of extortionists and manipulators, and its slogans are beginning to sound like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal that annoy and irritate the common people.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Encounters Left 9 NPAs Dead, Many Others Wounded
Malaybalay City— The 8th Infantry Battalion under Ltc Maurito L Licudine engaged the New People’s Army under Guerilla Front 6 in a series of encounter that left the communists with 9 combatants dead, and still-to- be determined number of wounded fighters. Government troops suffered two (2) Killed-in-Action and two others wounded.
The encounter happened in the mountainous area of Barangay Banlag, Valencia City, Bukidnon.
8IB Troopers had been scouring the area for the last two days after receiving intelligence reports about the presence of an NPA encampment somewhere in the vicinity of Barangays Banlag and Concepcion in Valencia City.
At around 12:20 in the afternoon of December 15, troops under Lt Oria and 2Lt Nelvis encountered more or less 60 heavily armed NPAs believed to be under the leadership of Abelardo Navarro a.k.a. Canoy/Zorro. After 20 minutes of heavy exchanges of firefight, the NPAs withdrew southward. At 12:35, the withdrawing NPAs clashed with the troops under Lt de la Cruz and 2Lt Gobway. The skirmishes left the NPAs with 5 dead and several others wounded and the recovery of two (2) M16, two (2) Garand and one (1) M14 high powered firearms.
At 4:00 in the afternoon, the withdrawing NPAs engaged the government troops again. The encounter left them with 4 more dead fighters, bringing the total number of dead NPAs to 9 individuals and additional three (3) M16s and one (1) M14 rifles recovered bringing the total number of recovered firearms to 9.
At around 5:30 in the afternoon, same day, another encounter took place. As of this writing, heavy exchanges of fire is still continuing.
Col Nicanor Dolojan, Brigade Commander of the 403rd Peacemaker Brigade, 4ID PA, expressed optimism that the government troops will prevail in the continuing battle even as he also sympathized with the families of all those who died in the encounter. BGen Mario F Chan, 4ID Commander, instructed the troops to pursue the enemy relentlessly to bring a strong message to the CPP-NPA that their armed revolution has no chance of ever achieving victory.
The encounter happened in the mountainous area of Barangay Banlag, Valencia City, Bukidnon.
8IB Troopers had been scouring the area for the last two days after receiving intelligence reports about the presence of an NPA encampment somewhere in the vicinity of Barangays Banlag and Concepcion in Valencia City.
At around 12:20 in the afternoon of December 15, troops under Lt Oria and 2Lt Nelvis encountered more or less 60 heavily armed NPAs believed to be under the leadership of Abelardo Navarro a.k.a. Canoy/Zorro. After 20 minutes of heavy exchanges of firefight, the NPAs withdrew southward. At 12:35, the withdrawing NPAs clashed with the troops under Lt de la Cruz and 2Lt Gobway. The skirmishes left the NPAs with 5 dead and several others wounded and the recovery of two (2) M16, two (2) Garand and one (1) M14 high powered firearms.
At 4:00 in the afternoon, the withdrawing NPAs engaged the government troops again. The encounter left them with 4 more dead fighters, bringing the total number of dead NPAs to 9 individuals and additional three (3) M16s and one (1) M14 rifles recovered bringing the total number of recovered firearms to 9.
At around 5:30 in the afternoon, same day, another encounter took place. As of this writing, heavy exchanges of fire is still continuing.
Col Nicanor Dolojan, Brigade Commander of the 403rd Peacemaker Brigade, 4ID PA, expressed optimism that the government troops will prevail in the continuing battle even as he also sympathized with the families of all those who died in the encounter. BGen Mario F Chan, 4ID Commander, instructed the troops to pursue the enemy relentlessly to bring a strong message to the CPP-NPA that their armed revolution has no chance of ever achieving victory.
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