AFP assistant Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Operations (J3), Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.
MANILA -- The Philippine government has found more evidence proving the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army’s (CPP-NPA) responsibility behind tortures and murders of its own members since the 1980s.
The seven-member Philippine delegation presented its report in Saravejo, Bosnia to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on Feb. 14 to clarify the 625 “desaparecidos" (disappearances) cases filed before the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) assistant Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Operations (J3), Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., in his report, detailed the inconsistencies in the statements of the terrorist group CPP-NPA that further revealed their admission to hundreds of cases of disappearances.
“While it is recognized that many Filipinos suffered during the martial law years and that some of those in the controversial list of disappeared persons are attributed to the individual actions of the paramilitary three to four decades ago, this delegation posits that many could be actually victims of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s (National Democratic Front) purging in the 1980s and early 1990s,” he said during his presentation to the group.
‘Kampanyang Ahos’
In its website, www.ndfp.org, the NDF itself said the CPP-NPA campaign "involved the kidnapping, torture, and murder of hundreds of CPP cadres and members, NPA commanders and fighters and mass activists”.
The strongest evidence lies from the self-published compendium of statements from 1992 to 2017 of the communist group that was released just last year.
Parlade, in his report, said the terror group has “admitted to the torture and murder of more than 950 party comrades, red fighters, and mass activists suspected of being Deep Penetration Agents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) during CPP’s Kampanyang Ahos”.
The purge was also referred in the CPP-NDF website as “a bloody witch-hunt reminiscent of medieval times in Europe… deprived of the right to due process and other democratic rights”.
CPP-NPA statement
On page 27 of the book published and written by the communist group, it heavily backs the government's premise, which said “in the absence of a comprehensive assessment and analysis of the increasing setbacks, suspicion grew that these had been due to enemy’s DPA, among other causes.”
Panic rapidly ensued after arrests and torture of DPA suspects “confirmed” the worst fears about a large-scale enemy infiltration network, it added.
The book also said: “This gave way to Kampanyang AHOS, resulting in the prejudgment, torture, and murder of the 950 DPA suspects, including Party comrades, Red fighters, activists, among others.
By 1986, the party membership declined from 9000 to 3000, the mass base had shrunk by 50 percent and the 15 companies and 30 platoons of the NPA had fallen to two companies and 17 platoons.
Following the successful enemy raids in 1988 on the central organs, including the general command of the NPA in Metro Manila, and with Kampanyang AHOS still widely believed to have really uncovered a large-scale enemy infiltration network in Mindanao, “many leading cadres and units became highly susceptible to suspiciousness and panic.”
Testimony of a former cadre
Parlade said the book,” To Suffer Thy Comrades", which he described as "meticulously researched, brilliantly written, and brutal", is an account of one of the CPP-NPA’s former internal anti-infiltration operations cadres.
“Like his comrades and other purge victims and survivors, seeks healing and justice while striving to move on from the chaos and paranoia that later enveloped the revolutionary group and caused it to implode,” Parlade said.
Other recent evidence
Just last year, the “involuntary disappearance” of the communist party’s NDF consultant Lora Manipis and husband Jeruel Domingo was reported in Kidapawan City.
They were last seen holding dialogues with indigenous peoples and peasants affected by mining operations of X-Trata mining.
“An investigation conducted later indicates that the couple ran away with party funds but this was never reported by the source of the report, Karapatan, a front organization founded by the CPP,” Parlade said.
In January this year, another NDF consultant was killed in a passenger bus in Nueva Vizcaya.
“The CPP in a statement was quick to accuse government forces as the perpetrator. What the CPP statement did not mention, however, was the same ‘financial opportunism’ that the missing Manipis couple was guilty of, an offense that the CPP declares as punishable by death,” he added. (CJC/PNA)
