STOP CULTURE OF VIOLENCE. Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, chief of the legal cooperation cluster of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC), calls on the CPP-NPA to stop the culture of violence. In a press conference on Monday (Jan. 4, 2021) at Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo City, Gonzales said the communist terrorist group is the real violator of human rights with their call for violence. (PNA photo by PGLena)
ILOILO CITY – The chief of the legal cooperation cluster of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) has called on the communist terrorist group (CTG) Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) to “stop the culture of violence”.
Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, in a press conference held at the Camp Martin Delgado here on Monday, called out an article that appeared at the kodao.org with the CPP calling for the NPA to “avenge tumandok 9”.
Tumandok 9 refers to the nine casualties in Tapaz, Capiz during legitimate police operations held last December 30.
“To avenge is a very strong word. 'Yan (That's) actually telling the NPA to kill the police,” he said.
He said the CTG was courageous enough to point out human rights violations when in fact they were the ones calling for its violation.
The prosecutor also hit the communist group for accusing the National Task Force-ELCAC as a violator of human rights when they were the ones calling for violence.
“NTF-ELCAC is all about peace. But peace is very elusive if we have an enemy who calls on violence, who relies on violence to achieve its aim. But one thing is clear, desperado na kayo siguro ano (perhaps you are already desperate)? Kasi (Because) you cannot reason out with us. The only thing left for you to do is the most barbaric thing to do. Violence is the last resort of people who lost all reason and logic,” he said.
Undersecretary Lorraine Marie T. Badoy of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), also the NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, labeled the CTGs as liars and hypocrites.
“They are calling the NTF-ELCAC a killing machine but it’s actually them. CPP-NPA-NDF is the killing machine and they are not human rights defenders as what they call themselves, they are the worst offenders of human rights,” she said.
“I am sorry but peace will not be cheap. It will come at the expense of grief from Filipinos who’ve been deceived into thinking that the only solution is the armed struggle. And there is a price to be paid for something like this,” she added during the press conference.
On Dec. 30, police operations conducted by the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) as a lead unit and supported by the Philippine Army in Calinog, Iloilo and Tapaz, Capiz resulted in the death of nine and arrest of 16 others members of the NPA.
The CPP-NPA has been waging a five-decade armed struggle against the government and is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
