Lt. General Antonio Parlade, Jr., chief of the military's Southern Luzon Command (PNA File photo)
MANILA – With the attacks of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) now faltering, a ranking military official on Monday said allies of communist terrorists operating above ground are now conducting massive efforts just to keep the movement alive.
"At ground level, CPP cadres (former Bayan Muna) Ka Satur (Ocampo) (Bayan Muna) Rep. (Carlos Isagani) Zarate, and the Kamatayan (Makabayan) Bloc, including Karapatan continue with their attacks on the bureaucracy, keeping hostage the agencies' budget. After the PCOO (Presidential Communications Operations Office), it is NICA's (National Intelligence Coordinating Agency) turn," said Lt. General Antonio Parlade, Jr., chief of the military's Southern Luzon Command.
Parlade, in a statement sent to PNA, said NICA Director-General Alex Paul Monteagudo has directly identified the Makabayan bloc as being members of the CPP.
"Can we go anywhere nearer to the truth than this?" he asked.
He added that the NICA chief is the most credible government official to state what everyone in the military and the NTF ELCAC knew all along, that the Makabayan bloc representatives are high ranking members of the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front.
"That the head of the repository of all intelligence of every government agencies, the most credible person to declare what (PCOO) Usec (Lorraine Marie) Badoy and a lot of us have been saying all along: that Makabayan Reps are high ranking members of the CPP-NPA-NDF. That they cannot be nominated by the CPP to any of the Kamatayan (Makabayan) bloc party-list if they are not card-bearing members of this terrorist organization," he added.
As members of the CPP, he said, they are responsible for everything that the terrorist NPAs have done like the recent killing of Datu Jumar Bucales and Zaldy Maca, both former NPAs who have since helped many NPAs return to the fold of the law and live peaceful lives.
“They were also instrumental in exposing the real agenda of the CPP alternative learning schools like Tribal Indigenous Peoples Surigao Sur (TRIFPSS) which were eventually closed by DepEd (Department of Education)," Parlade added.
Just like CPP founding chair Jose Maria "Joma" Sison, Bucales and Maca have both red-tagged the Makabayan bloc as part of the CPP-NPA, he said.
"It is not NICA nor any government official who red-tagged them. They are simply stating a fact that needs to be known by our people in order to protect their children from the exploitation of these groups, as well as prevent the IPs (Indigenous Peoples) from further exploitation," he added.
He said such actions of Bucales and Maca are considered counter-revolutionary acts by the CPP-NPA leadership such that they have sentenced to death the two IP leaders, and the thousand more victims of CPP purging in the past years.
Challenge
Parlade dared Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Eufemia Cullamat to comment on the killing of these IP leaders.
"Can she offer any justification for the killing of her constituents? Or will she be mum about this because her siblings, as well as her husband, are NPAs, with her NPA husband facing criminal cases for the assassination of indigenous peoples," he added.
Meanwhile, he called the spate of CPP-NPA attacks in Albay, Mindoro, and Surigao in the past few days as feeble attempts by the communist terrorists to get even with the government who now has the upper hand in the conflict.
"The NPAs in Albay and Mindoro ambushed PNP (Philippine National Police) personnel recently. They also killed two tribal leaders in Surigao who were openly and fiercely anti-communist. These are separate incidents and are, in reality, parts of a bigger CPP plan which they failed to execute for more than ten months now, thanks primarily to the support given by the Filipino people to the NTF ELCAC," he added.
The attacks, he said, are statements to show that communist terrorists are still a relevant fighting force despite their series of defeats.
"The incidents were statements: 'Bago man lang tayo malaos na ng husto, makabawi man lang kahit papaano' (Before we get really beaten and fade into oblivion, we might get even a little)," he added.
Parlade said these crushing defeats and lack of public support are the reasons why NPA fighters and allies are surrendering in droves nowadays.
"The recent surrenders by groups of three or four or more is also a statement: many of these fighters are convinced that they are a dying breed, and that now is the ripe time to lay down their arms," he added.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
Parlade also chided members of Kamatayan bloc for forgetting that they are public officials who have sworn allegiance to the Philippine flag.
"Their duality, however, requires them to take an oath too to the CPP Constitution, with an M-16 bullet at hand, to signify that they embrace the use of violence to achieve their end, and be part of the efforts to overthrow our democratic government and supplant it with a 'democratic dictatorship' (CPP Constitution Art. 3 Sec. 7, p. 24)," he added.
Same boat?
Parlade took offense to Zarate's tirades against Monteagudo wherein he invoked Republic Act 6713 (also known the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees).
"So, Rep. Zarate when you invoke RA 6713, and require public officials like DG (Director General) Monteagudo of NICA, to act with professionalism and the highest degree of integrity, should that in fact remind you that we are all in the same boat?" he asked.
He added that the oath that Zarate took as an elected official also means that he has to do everything he can to protect every Filipino citizen from the atrocities being committed by the NPAs.
"It also bears down on you to expose the identity of these terrorists who pose a big threat to our children, our Indigenous Peoples, the poor and marginalized," Parlade said. “And if you break this oath by being true to the oath you took to the CPP and by the existing dualities of masks you wear, then you will be liable under Sec 15 of the ATL for Grave Misconduct and Disloyalty to the Republic and Filipino people. The same goes for each Makabayan bloc representative."
Parlade also scored Ocampo for his column on Oct. 3 that says the "NTF ELCAC is the prime purveyor of tagging activists and progressive people's organizations as terrorists and enemies of the state."
In the same column, Ocampo also cited United Nations High Commission for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet's deep concern about these incidents (red-tagging leading to the killing of targeted individual groups or organs).
"But with his involvement in the CPP underground, Ka Satur knows that all of these tagged organizations are indeed red. By virtue of their plans and actions, they all conspire to commit terrorist acts and violates Sec. 7 of Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL)," Parlade said.
He claimed that Makabayan bloc’s attempts to incite or commit acts of terror by their speeches, writings, banners are in violation of Sec. 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
"They also know they are guilty of (violating) Sec. 10 - recruitment to a terror organization. All of them also know that most of the fabricated information provided to the UN came from CPP affiliates in the ILPS (International League of Peoples' Struggle) including Ibon and Karapatan, the objective of which is to continue to project that the Philippine government displays a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant abuse of authority – a tyrant," he added.
Protecting Joma
Parlade said actions are being done by the CPP-NPA and its allies to protect Sison by invoking non-refoulment and evade the possibility of being sent home to answer for his continuing crimes of genocide and murder.
"Karapatan called on the AFP, the PNP, and NTF ELCAC to disclose the advocacy groups and the FB accounts they are supporting and asked 'How much of peoples' taxes they are spending on government's fake online prop machinery taken down by Facebook'," he added.
He vowed to deal with Karapatan general secretary Cristina Palabay later as she has "heaps of issues" to explain about the NPA's violations of human rights.
"Meantime, let the Kamatayan (Makabayan) bloc explain their involvement in the CPP. Their membership in the CPP is legal so why deny what is verifiable truth? They deny it because they are aware of the million and one heinous crimes committed by the unholy Trinity of the CPP-NPA-NDF that can never be justified. Let's hear it from them," he added. (PNA)
