Tag Archives: NPA
CHR to resume probe on Rebelyn rape-slay case
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
TOPNEWS
PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 88
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Davao Region will resume its investigation on the rape-slay of Rebelyn Pitao, the daughter of Leoncio Pitao, also known as Kumander Parago, commander of the Pulang Bagani Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) to gather more pieces of evidence for the possible filing of cases.
SIPACO: Lacking evidence
Atty. Alberto Sipaco, CHR regional director, said the three public inquiries conducted by the commission en banc in 2009 failed to gather hard evidence that warrants the filing and prosecution of cases against possible respondents.
He said CHR Davao has been tasked to continue the investigation by the CHR en banc.
“The pieces of evidence (previously)gathered were not enough,” he said.
Sipaco said the CHR plans to invite certain members of the Military Intelligence Battalion.
REBELYN CODE
nearing completion
A proposed Davao City ordinance adding more strength to national legislation on human rights protection is on its final dash to completion.
We are now finalizing the draft of the ordinance before submission to the City Council for approval, said Councilor
Karlo Bello, chair of the committee on human rights.
The ordinance known as the Rebelyn Code is named after Rebelyn Pitao, daughter of Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao, the head of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) First Pulang Bagani Command.
Rebelyn, a high school teacher, was seized by unidentified persons two years ago while going home from school to their residence in a subdivision in Davao City. Her mutilated body would later be found dumped in an irrigation canal in Carmen, Davao del Norte. Parago claimed military agents were behind the murder. Medical findings also showed Rebelyn was raped before being killed.
The provisions have to be carefully crafted to ensure that it is capable of effective implementation and would not run contrary to an existing national law or be deemed a duplication, said Bello in the I-Speak forum of the City Hall information office. RMB
MAYOR Sara Duterte to NPA spokesman: If I am stupid, you are rabid and vile
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
After being called ” stupid” by a spokesman of the comunist New Peoples Army (NPA) for her call on rebel leaders to give up their arms and surrender to government, Mayor Sara Duterte has returned the complement in more acerbic, hard-to-swallow language.
If I am stupid, you are rabid and vile, said Mayor Duterte in reaction to Rigoberto Sanchez, the phantom spokesman of the NPA in Southern Mindanao, during her regular Monday press forum at City Hall.
inFRONTPAGE PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 88,
Dec. 12-18, 2011
Earlier, Duterte appealed to NPA rebel leaders Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao, the leader of the NPA First Pulang Bagani Command operating in farflung Paquibato District, and another rebel leader she identified only as Ka Oda, to lay down their arms and talk peace with the government.
Her call came on the heels of the killing of three troopers of the Army 69th Infantry Battalion (69th IB) during a clash with the rebels in Paquibato.
“Power has gone to the head of Mayor Duterte who recently issued a stupid call for Ka Parago and Ka Oda to lay down their arms and surrender to the reactionary government, ” said spokesman Rigoberto Sanchez of the NPA Merardo Arce Command, Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, in a statement emailed to the Durian Post.
Sanchez also assailed Duterte for what he claimed were previous anti-revolutionary statements against the NPA of the mayor.
“Her pronouncements against the NPA and the revolutionary movement have been consistent throughout this year: malicious and a thorough disservice to the people of Davao City. While the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command-NPA has so far discounted her previous statements as merely reckless and naive, the NPA can now actually conclude that the mind and stance of Sara Duterte has bordered on being counterrevolutionary or reactionary,” said Sanchez.
“By arrogantly challenging (to) surrender NPA leaders like Ka Parago and Ka Oda, Sara Duterte has shown that she is utterly unacquainted with the fact that the NPA is a revolutionary army engaged in defending the masses from the fascist and atrocious AFP, ” said Sanchez, the faceless rebel spokesman who signs NPA press releases sent out to media.
Duterte is unfazed.
The NPA reaction only showed their true colors, she said at the City Hall presscon.
Let’s talk peace instead. I was not reactionary but conciliatory, she said.
By calling on Parago and Oda to surrender, she was acting as a chief executive seeking peace with rebels, she said lamenting that Sanchez’ reaction showed that the NPA does not want to talk peace.
They want war not peace, she said, adding her call on rebel leaders to lay their arms was a ploy to test where the NPA stands on peace.
“I just wanted to show to the people the reaction of the rebel movement on the call for peace and they took the bait. It is their reaction that is rabid and bile, we are talking about peace and sustainable development here,” she said.
Duterte dismissed claim by Sanchez that she is anti-NPA.
If I am I will just send five battalions or one division of soldiers to Paquibato District to hunt down Parago, she said. The elusive Parago, who is flesh and blood to local media unlike Sanchez, has been operating in Paquibato for more that two decades.
COMMUNIST REBELS SLAM DAVAO CITY MAYOR SARA DUTERTE FOR BEING COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY
Press Statement
4 December 2011
Mayor Sara Duterte’s surrender call:
A stupidity; reveals her reactionary character
Power has gone to the head of GPH local mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City who recently issued a stupid call for Ka Parago and Ka Oda of the New People’s Army (NPA) to lay down their arms and surrender to the reactionary government. Ridiculously still heady with her international “punching” stature, Sara Duterte has spewed a blatant disinformation and psywar campaign to defend the 69th Infantry Battalion-10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in connection with an NPA ambush, November 29, in Paradise Embac, Paquibato District, Davao City. Injudicious and revealing her reactionary character, Sara Duterte apparently wants what the military and the past regimes from the time of Marcos up to now have failed to do, for Ka Parago to abandon armed struggle and the revolutionary movement.
The ambush by the 1st Pulang Bagani Company-NPA killed three soldiers of the 69th IB-AFP who were masquerading as peace and development teams in Sitio Guinobatan, Barangay Paradise Embac. Red fighters also confiscated an M203 rifle.
Sara Duterte has made a sweeping call not even made by her father, longtime Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who has not dared to disparage Ka Parago and the NPA in such a way in the former mayor’s more than two decades at the helm of the reactionary Davao City politics.
VICE MAYOR rodrigo Duterte visiting Kumander Parago in his mountain hideout in hinterland Paquibato district
While her father has, in some ways, cooperated and recognized the cause of the revolutionary struggle, Sara Duterte has been consistently and obstinately, profuse in praises for the AFP while rabid and full of counterrevolutionary fervor towards the NPA and the revolutionary movement.
- LT. COL. MAYOR INDAY. Mayor Sara Duterte earning the promotion in the Army Reserve Corps during a simple ceremonylast year at City Hall presided by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, left, and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of-Staff General Ricardo David Jr. BERT TOMAS
Her pronouncements against the NPA and the revolutionary movement have been consistent throughout this year: malicious and a thorough disservice to the people of Davao City. While the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command-NPA has so far discounted her previous statements as merely reckless and naive, the NPA can now actually conclude that the mind and stance of Sara Duterte has bordered on being counterrevolutionary or reactionary.
She first accused the NPA of targeting her during a successful military action against a supply and reconnaissance team in Paquibato last January. She called the arrest of GPH Lingig Mayor Henry Dano and four BJMP personnel as kidnapping and plain banditry and scoffed calls by civil libertarians for the release of political detainees saying that the latter face legitimate criminal charges. She defended, with gusto, the stay of the 69th IB-AFP detachment near a school in Paradise Embac despite it being an IHL (international humanitarian law) violation and despite the popular clamor by the masses and even by human rights advocates from the Davao City local government unit. In defending the 69th IB-AFP, she called a September 17 NPA attack in Paradise Embac as counter-productive. The series of NPA attacks against the 69th IB-AFP are legitimate military actions against a grossly abusive AFP unit.
All in all, Sara Duterte wants to sweep under the rug the atrocious SOT operations and fascist character of the Oplan Bayanihan operations of the 69th IB-AFP in Paquibato and other parts in Davao City and Davao del Norte. The 69th IB-AFP’s offensive combat and psywar SOT operations have victimized thousands of peasant masses of Paquibato and in Panabo, with cases ranging from intimidation, grave threats, usurpation of civilian auspices like schools, civilian houses, barangay halls; attempted rape, molestation of women and harassment of youth and children, forced surrenders, military checkpoints manned by drunk and abusive soldiers, forced recruitment of Cafgus, instigation of a pangayaw as proxy war between lumad and non-lumad settlers, and drinking sessions by soldiers that led to various forms of harassment of local residents, to name a few.
Not content with this gross injustice, Sara Duterte has taken the stance of the fascist AFP, hook, line and sinker in demonizing the NPA and the revolutionary movement, ignorant as she is in the realities of the ongoing civil war in the country. Sara Duterte has revealed her gross poor knowledge of the fact that the CPP-NPA-NDFP leads a political movement engaged and co-belligerent in armed conflict with the GPH.
By arrogantly challenging the surrender of NPA leaders like Ka Parago and Ka Oda, Sara Duterte has shown that she is utterly unacquainted with the fact that the NPA is a revolutionary army engaged in defending the masses from the fascist and atrocious AFP. In offering surrender talks, would her infantile mind concoct a solution to the centuries-old problem of landlessness and exploitation, problems that have bred the armed struggle in the country?
By acting as a conscious spokesperson and defender of the fascist AFP, Sara Duterte has de facto condoned the culture of impunity in the AFP, PNP and their paramilitary groups (Cafgus and CVOs) and intelligence units. These troops which Sara Duterte so wants to protect and prop up as harbingers of peace and order and progress, are implementing the Oplan Bayanihan, which rehashed the previous regime’s Oplan Bantay Laya in attacking communities and deploying thousands of troops deemed to be under the sway or supportive of the revolutionary movement.
Before shooting her mouth, Sara Duterte should listen to the people, investigate the onslaught of abuses by the AFP in Davao City and study even the basic rudiments of our country’s history and the civil war. As things point to right now, she has already rendered herself as a noisy but shallow reactionary, a friend to the people’s enemy, and, who knows, an enemy in the making.
Rigoberto F. Sanchez
Spokesperson
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army
ALSO READ:
Davao City urges New People’s Army rebels to surrender | Sun.Star
Mayor Sara Duterte: New People’s Army rebels‘ reaction rabid, vile …
Truce call conciliatory, not reactionary: mayor | Mindanao Times
South Cotabato governor says troops fighting illegal sluice miners in Tampakan
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
Tampakan, South Cotabato — Governor Arthur Pingoy said military troops in Tampakan town are atationed there not to protect the interest of mining giant Sagittarius Mins (SMI) but to help contain sluice mining operations, an illegal form of mining locally called banlas, used by illegal miners.
Sluice mining uses high-pressure hoses spraying water on the face of the mountain to draw out rocks containing gold and copper ores, causing severe erosion and havoc on the mountain and foliage.
While the governor said South Cotabato has been cleared from the influence of the communist rebels, he said “we are trying to secure all, and so we are on guard all the time” when asked asked about possible attacks in the mining areas. by the communist New Peoples Army (NPA).
Pingoy said internal security efforts have been turned over recently to the provincial government by the military, following military assessment that South Cotabato has been cleared from the influence of the communist rebels.
But governor said the South Cotabato provincial government has called for vigilance against rebels attacks on foreign-owned mining firms operating in the province following the rebel raid on Nickel Asia Corp, the country’s largest nickel producer, in Surigao del Norte.
Rebels burned down equipment worth P500 million in the raid on the company owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.
Lake Sebu town of this province hosts the gold-silver project of Cadan Resources Corp., a Canadian firm, and local partner Tribal Mining Corp. with Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp. holding majority rights.
Sagittarius Mining Inc. (SMI), controlled by Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer; with Australian firm Indophil Resources NL as the junior equity partner. is on a gold-copper exploratory stage on a 10,000-hectare mining concession in Tampakan town.
On New Year’s Day in 2008, Communist guerillas burned down in 2008 the SMI administration building and equipment worth P12 million during an attack on the mining firm’s mountain base camp.
The Valentin Palamine Command of the NPA Far East Command claimed the attack.
The rebels warned of future offensives if the company would not stop its operation that stretches to the towns of Columbio in Sultan Kudarat, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Malungon in Sarangani.
The Tampakan Gold-Copper Project, set to start commercial operation in 2016, targets what is touted as the largest known undeveloped copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia.
Comunist rebels have warned more raids on mining firms in Mindanao they deemed “abusive.”
“We are serious and determined to protect our patrimony, sovereignty, and the general welfare and interests of the people and the environment. We will use the full potential of the revolutionary movement to carry out these just policies,” said Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, spokesman for the National Democratic Front (NDF)-Mindanao in a statement on the heels of the Surigao del Norte raid where they burned heavy equipment worth P500 million.
The spokesman of the Philippine Army has branded the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels as peace saboteurs and political terrorists following the raid.
“This is another cheap political stunt of the communist that proves too costly to our economy,” AFP spokesman Antonio Parlade said.
SoCot on alert vs. communist rebel attacks
THE DURIAN POST WEEKLY NO. 81
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
The South Cotabato provincial government has called for vigilance against attacks by communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on foreign-owned mining firms operating in the province following the rebel raid on Nickel Asia Corp, the country’s largest nickel producer, in Surigao del Norte.
Rebels burned down equipment worth P500 million in the raid on the company owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.
Lake Sebu town of this province hosts the gold-silver project of Cadan Resources Corp., a Canadian firm, and local partner Tribal Mining Corp. with Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp. holding majority rights.
Sagittarius Mining Inc. (SMI), controlled by Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer; with Australian firm Indophil Resources NL as the junior equity partner. is on a gold-copper exploratory stage on a 10,000-hectare mining concession in Tampakan town.
On New Year’s Day in 2008, communist guerillas burned down the administration building and equipment worth P12 million of SMI during an attack on the mining firm’s mountain base camp.
The Valentin Palamine Command of the NPA Far East Command claimed the attack.
The rebels warned of future offensives if the company would not stop its operation that stretches to the towns of Columbio in Sultan Kudarat, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Malungon in Sarangani.
The Tampakan Gold-Copper Project, set to start commercial operation in 2016, targets what is touted as the largest known undeveloped copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia.
“We are trying to secure all, and so we are on guard all the time,” the governor told media when asked about possible attacks in the mining areas..
Pingoy said internal security efforts have been turned over recently to the provincial government by the military, following military assessment that South Cotabato has been cleared from the influence of the communist rebels.
Pingoy said military troops in Tampakan town are not to protect SMI but to contain sluice mining operations, an illegal form of mining locally called banlas, used by illegal miners in the mountains of Tampakan.
KA ROGER IS DEAD!
Comrade GREGORIO “Ka Roger” ROSAL, 64, spokesman, New People”s Army (NPA)
South Cotabato on alert vs. rebel attacks on foreign mining firms
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
The South Cotabato provincial government has called for vigiilance against attacks by communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on foreign-owned mining firms operating in the province following the rebel raid on Nickel Asia Corp, the country’s largest nickel producer, in Surigao del Norte.
Rebels burned down equipment worth P500 million in the raid on the company owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.
Lake Sebu town of this province hosts the gold-silver project of Cadan Resources Corp., a Canadian firm, and local partner Tribal Mining Corp. with Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp. holding majority rights.
Sagittarius Mining Inc. (SMI), controlled by Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer; with Australian firm Indophil Resources NL as the junior equity partner. is on a gold-copper exploratory stage on a 10,000-hectare mining concession in Tampakan town.
On New Year’s Day in 2008, communist guerillas burned down the administration building and equipment worth P12 million of SMI during an attack on the mining firm’s mountain base camp.
The Valentin Palamine Command of the NPA Far East Command claimed the attack.
The rebels warned of future offensives if the company would not stop its operation that stretches to the towns of Columbio in Sultan Kudarat, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Malungon in Sarangani.
The Tampakan Gold-Copper Project, set to start commercial operation in 2016, targets what is touted as the largest known undeveloped copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia.
“We are trying to secure all, and so we are on guard all the time,” the governor told media when asked about possible attacks in the mining areas..
Pingoy said internal security efforts have been turned over recently to the provincial government by the military, following military assessment that South Cotabato has been cleared from the influence of the communist rebels.
Pingoy said military troops in Tampakan town are not to protect SMI but to contain sluice mining operations, an illegal form of mining locally called banlas, used by illegal miners in the mountains of Tampakan.
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NDF BARES ABDUCTED SURIGAO MAYOR DANO’S ‘SINS’
STATEMENT
The application of the legal and judicial processes of the revolutionary movement in the pending case of GPH municipal Mayor Henry Dano of Lingig, Surigao del Sur continues despite the intense military operations of the 4th and 10th Infantry Divisions of the Eastern Mindanao Command-Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Mayor Dano is facing the charge of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) in connection with the building and maintenance of a private armed group that operates in pursuit of mining interests and in conjunction with the larger armed counterrevolutionary program of the GPH. This resulted in the commission of the criminal act of murder and other serious human rights violations. His private armed group was organized in collaboration with the regular, intelligence and paramilitary forces of the 75th IB-4th ID-AFP a few months after last year’s GPH elections.
This private armed group — which also functions as a security unit for his mining-related enterprises in Brgy Palo Alto and other areas in Lingig — harassed peasants and Lumads who oppose the entry of large-scale mining operations in the area. On October 24, 2010, the paramilitary goons of Mayor Dano murdered Eduardo “Tacder” Toyogon, a purok leader of Purok 7, Sitio Sayon, Barangay Mahayahay, Lingig and a member of a progressive peasant association.
Sufficient information which have been obtained point to a specific violation by Mayor Dano and his co-conspirators of, among others, No. 4, Article 2 , Part III and No. 8, Article 3, Part IV of the CARHRIHL which respectively provides for the respect of “the right to life, especially against summary execution” and against “maintaining, supporting and tolerating paramilitary groups such as armed religious fanatical groups, vigilante groups, private armed groups of businessmen, landlord and politicians, and private security agencies which are being used in land and labor disputes” and for committing prohibited acts enumerated in No. 1, Article 3, Part IV of the CARHRIHL.
Despite or regardless of the continuation of the general armed hostilities or even specific military operations, the legal and judicial processes of the revolutionary movement continues as a matter of course in the exercise of its revolutionary powers as a distinct government.
Even as the NPA custodial unit ensures his safety and well-being while the processes of the People’s Court are underway, the GPH and its armed forces arrogantly stonewall in their fascist brutality by contemptuously rejecting all considerations for Mayor Dano’s safety.
While the pertinent organs of the People’s Democratic Government — duly cognizant of his rights as an accused — has released evidence of the humane treatment of Mayor Dano while under custody, the spokesperson of the AFP’s Eastern Mindanao Command gloats in rejecting the humanitarian appeals by Mayor Dano himself, his family and many advocates for a peaceful political resolution of the case. Instead, Col. Leopoldo Galon Jr. announces the intensification of offensive and rescue operations.
Military “rescue” operations only serve three purposes:
-
deliberately endanger the lives of the detainees;
-
impede the judicial processes applied to Mayor Dano as an accused before the People’s Court; and
-
prolong the custodial detention as a result of the delay in the judicial proceedings. The GPH is solely responsible for the consequences of its militarist actions. Rubi del Mundo, Spokesman
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT
Southern Mindanao
Military to continue operation vs NPAs holding Lingig mayor, 2 military escorts
LEADING THE HUNT. 10th ID, Philippine Army under MGen. Jorge U. Segovia, left, being welcomed early this year shortly after taking command of the 10th ID, Philippine Army from MGen Carlos Holganza by Compostela Valley Gov. Chiongkee Uy and Mawab Mayor Evalina Jampayas. Segovia is leading the hunt for New Peoples Army rebels holding Surigao del Sur ‘s Lingig Mayor Dano and his two military security escorts. About 15 NPA fronts operate in the boundary of Compostela Valley and Surigao del Sur. (a.dayao/ids comval) (a.dayao/ids comval)
DAVAO CITY – The military will not stop its operation against the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels holding Lingig Mayor Henry Dano and two of his escorts since August 6, according to Major General Jorge Segovia, commander of the 10th Infantry Division.
IN REBEL HANDS: Mayor Dano, Pfc. Saban,Cpl. Desamparado
Speaking to reporters during a briefing at the Hermes Club at Pearl Farm-Marina on Thursday, Segovia said the rebels might have taken Lingig Mayor and two of his escorts to Davao Oriental given the proximity of Surigao del Sur to Region 11.
However, Segovia stressed that the high command of the Armed Forces has given him the instructions to continue the military operation.
“As of now we cannot stop our peace and order duties. The pursuit operation will continue, being our constitutional mandate,” Segovia said.
He said suspension of military operation will only happen either if it is already a political decision by government or it already endangers the lives of persons abducted on the specific time and place.
Segovia observed that the rebels are asking for SOMO in areas where there are ongoing peace and development outreach activities of the military.
NAMESAKES. Gen. Jorge Segovia has a namesake in Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos, the Southern Mindanao spokesman of the communist movement's political arm National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
He also said the rebels also resort to abduction in order to pressure government to release political detainees whom the rebels cannot prove as covered by the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
“Their objective is clearly for prisoner swap, but the government peace panel would not agree. So they resort to using the media to pressure the government,” Segovia said.
He said the SOMO order might come at an appropriate time if there is a need to stop the operations at a specific time and place to ensure the safe release of the abducted persons.
On Wednesday, the rebel movement released the voice clips of Dano and his escorts pleading the government to stop the military operations to expedite their safe release. (PNA)
DURIANBURGDAVAONewsForumForPeaceInMindanao News Update from PNA
