MANILA, Philippines — Despite the revival of peace talks, the Department of National Defense (DND) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) renewed their commitment yesterday to defeat the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing.
The statement came on the heels of an attack by communist rebels last Friday that killed a policeman and two other civilians in Eastern Samar.
“The CPP-NPA (New People’s Army) declared war, bringing untold misery to our people. This is war. We win some and we lose some. Our security forces should accept these loses as the price we pay to preserve our freedom and democracy,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, referring to the Eastern Samar incident.
The military vowed to maintain its relentless operations against what it now tags as communist terrorists, through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which also called on insurgents to lay down their arms and return to the folds of the law.
Reports said Friday’s attack happened at around 4 p.m. as five police officers of the 1st Eastern Samar Provincial Mobile Force Company based in Barangay Lunang in the town of Dolores were riding a patrol vehicle headed for the police provincial headquarters.
Upon reaching a road at Barangay Libuton in Borongan City, a suspected landmine or improvised explosive device (IED) hit their vehicle followed by gunfire from armed NPA rebels.
Civilians aboard a tricycle following the patrol car were caught in the blast. Pat. Mark Jerome Rama and civilian Agripena Avilla Traboco, 69, were killed.
Lorenzana, asked about the timing of the attack considering current efforts by the Duterte administration to revive the peace talks, said the CPP-NPA usually launches such attacks on the eve of peace talks “to project their so-called strength.”
But despite what happened, the move to resume peace negotiations will continue as well as “our efforts to bring them down, to join the society for those who are willing.”
“So will our combat operations (continue) against their armed components who continue to wage war. No let-up even during peace talks,” Lorenzana said.
He stressed that Duterte has decided to resume the talks and “we support it. But our troops will continue their operations specially in support of NTF-ELCAC.”
No holiday truce
AFP spokesman, Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo slammed the NPA’s “deplorable act of murdering a civilian and wounding fourteen others.”
He said such an attack “affirmed the (AFP’s) decision not to recommend the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire with the CTG this Yuletide season.”
“The abominable crime that also killed a policeman shows what these terrorist members of the New People’s Army are capable of: an evil of unconscionable degree and timing,” he added.
Arevalo said the attack was done “on a Christmas season when everyone’s longing is to be home to celebrate the holidays with family. Instead, the bereaved relatives will be mourning their dead.”
He said the CPP-NPA “merely confirmed who they really are – opportunists in advancing peace negotiations and transgressors of human rights masquerading to be pro-people.”
Arevalo said the AFP calls on the Filipino people to unite against “these terrorists. They should never allow these malefactors in their communities. They should be wary of wolves in sheep’s clothing that lurks around them. Parents are forewarned of the beasts that have devoured the future of many unwitting minor children who were lured into joining the terrorist NPA.”