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Cullamat now knows how moms of slain youth rebels feel: Badoy

By Christine Cudis

November 30, 2020, 5:14 pm

<p>Presidential Communications Undersecretary and National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy</p>

Presidential Communications Undersecretary and National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy

MANILA – Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Eufemia Cullamat now knows the pain and the “kind of loss and grief experienced by all those parents whose activist children were killed in violent pursuit of a misguided cause,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary and National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy said.

Badoy, who recently sat in a Senate hearing to discuss the issues on red-tagging, made this statement on Sunday, in the wake of the death of Cullamat's daughter, Jevilyn, who was killed in an encounter between government troops and New People's Army (NPA) rebels.

Badoy also wants to send the message out in the public that the task force calls on the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) “to lay down their arms and move away from extremism”.

“Let us stand in the center of our shared ground of love for our country and our children so that this country may finally know what it is like to live in genuine peace and understanding,” she added.

The 22-year-old Cullamat was identified by her siblings and nine former rebels as “Ka Reb”.

She is the youngest daughter of the Bayan Muna solon.

Philippine Army’s 3rd special forces official, 1Lt Krisjuper Punsalan, said the young Cullamat served as a medic of the NPA and a member of the rebel group’s Sandatahang Yunit Pampropaganda (SYP) Platoon of Guerilla Front 19, Northeastern Regional Committee (NEMRC).

The troops engaged the rebels in a 45-minute firefight which ended with her death in Barangay San Isidro, Marihatag town in Surigao del Sur in Mindanao on November 28.

In a statement, her mother, however, said her child’s decision to take on that path was “reasonable”.

Di ako nagtataka kung sumapi sa NPA ang aking anak dahil sa patuloy na nararanasan naming mga katutubo sa mga pagmamalupit at pang-aabuso ng AFP at ng kanilang paramilitary groups. Naranasan mismo ito ng aming pamilya. Naniniwala ako na makatwiran ang kaniyang ipinaglaban pero ibang porma ang kanyang pinili. (I am not shocked that my child has joined the NPA because of the continued harassment that indigenous people experience from the military. My family has experienced this. I believe her fight was reasonable but she followed a different path),” she was quoted in a story published by ABS-CBN.

‘Lend an ear’

Meanwhile, Hands Off our Children (HOC), a group formed by parents whose children were reportedly recruited by militant groups, also extended their sympathy to the grieving family.

HOC founder Gemma Labsan expressed hope that the lawmaker will lend an ear to their cause of bringing home their children allegedly recruited by militant organizations and later embraced armed rebellion through the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP.

Kaya nakikiusap kami kay Cong. Cullamat na tulungan kaming pauwiin ang aming mga anak na kanilang irekrut sa armadong pakikibaka. Ayaw naming sapitin ng aming mga anak ang nangyari sa iyong anak. Ayaw naming malamig na bangkay na lamang ang aming yayakapin. Dama namin ang sakit na ito bilang isang ina (We are asking Cong. Cullamat to help us bring home our children who were recruited into the armed struggle. We do not want this [killing] to happen to our children. We do not want to hold them when they are cold and dead. We feel this pain as mothers),” Labsan, who speaks for the group, shared.

‘Doctrine of hate’

Meanwhile, Badoy reiterated in her statement that the war brought forward by the CPP-NPA has deeply wounded the country and has created an ideology centered on “the doctrine of hate”.

“It has bitterly divided us as a people- more so when it is our children who are offered up as sacrifice in this altar of radicalism where Filipinos have been taught to hate then kill fellow Filipinos for over 52 years now,” she said.

During the second hearing discussing red-tagging issue on November 24, former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño mentioned that the NPA “recruits among the idealistic sectors of the society” and that they “prioritized the activists because they can take on the sacrifices and devote their time to the cause”.

Bayan Muna, one of the leftist organizations that form the Makabayan bloc, however, continued to deny the long-standing allegations of the military that the group and their allied members have ties with the CPP-NPA-NDF.

It was in this regard that National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told the Senate that it was “irresponsible” for the Makabayan bloc to allow their members or the activists in their organizations to join the armed rebellion.

[You told us] na yung mga aktibistang naging miyembro ng NPA ay sarili nilang desisyon yun. Mangyayari ba yun kung walang nagre-recruit? That is simply an alibi, and denying responsibility from all cases. Doon sa mga rally, ipagmamalaki doon na ang alumnus ninyo ay mga NPA, saan ang responsibility ninyo? Parte kayo ng gobyerno (Those activists who became members of NPA, you told us that that was their personal decision. Would that happen if they were not recruited in the first place? That is simply an alibi and denying responsibility from all cases. In your rallies, you boast that your alumni are members of the NPA. Where is your responsibility? You are part of the government),” Esperon said during the Senate hearing.

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. (PNA)

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