Lt. Gen. Anthony Parlade Jr., AFP Southern Luzon Command chief (PNA File photo)
MANILA – Either he is losing control over the New People's Army (NPA), growing senile, or lying through his teeth.
Thus, said Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) chief, Lt. Gen. Anthony Parlade Jr., reacting to the denial of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria "Joma" Sison on his orders to assassinate ranking officials of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC).
"Is senile Jose Maria Sison losing his control over his vicious and blood-thirsty attack dogs, New People's Army?" he said in a statement Tuesday night.
Sison earlier denied sending out the NPA hit squad, consisting of three assassins, who were neutralized and killed after a shootout with government troops in Buena Rosa Subdivision, Barangay Macabling, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna on May 21.
"How can 'Joma', the 'master red-tagger', deny that he gave those instructions to eliminate officials of NTF ELCAC when just last January 2, 2021, he reiterated this order to organize his murder squad to attack NTF ELCAC officials and counter-revolutionaries?" he said.
Parlade was referring to Sison's acknowledgment that there is "popular demand for punitive actions and revolutionary justice for unrelenting attacks against unarmed activists, peasants and innocent civilians" in the urban areas by the military, police, and other paramilitary forces.
"Professor Sison acknowledged that such popular demand is widespread and that the conditions are ripe for the return of armed city partisans to counter the assassinations and impunity by the Duterte regime," a CPP press release dated Dec. 28, 2021, read.
The increase in guerrilla fronts are "enough basis" for the deployment of small NPA teams to conduct armed partisan operations in the cities to mete out revolutionary justice and easily withdraw to its safety, added the statement released by CPP spokesperson Marco Valbuena.
With this warning seen in broad daylight, Parlade said the NTF ELCAC had no choice but to take the necessary security precautions.
"In fact, we already took action prior to that which resulted in the killing of five of their murder squad in Baras, Rizal last 17 December 2020, among them were identified as Carlito Simon, Jonathan Alberga, Nino Alberga, and Llyod Natividad. The CPP and their allies, especially the Kamatayan (Makabayan) Bloc and Karapatan, have since tagged the incident as (the) 'Baras 5' incident," he added.
These militant groups, he said, are quick to claim that the fallen NPA hitmen in Baras are farmers.
He added that these groups have forgotten the fact that many high-powered weapons and explosives along with laptops and subversive documents were recovered shortly after the incident.
"All claimed that the fallen were farmers. Maybe, except that they yielded two M-16 automatic rifles, one Uzi submachine gun, one .45 caliber pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, grenades, several laptops, cellphones, ATM cards which they use to withdraw money from their extortion victims and subversive documents," 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.
"In fact, the fallen hitmen last Friday, who were identified as Rommel Rizza alias 'Jomar/Bernie', Commanding Officer, Regional Special Operations Group (CO, RSOG); CO, Main Regional Guerilla Unit (MRGU); and Execom Member, Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC); 'Ka Blue/Billy', Medic/Supply Officer, RSOG, STRPC; and 'Ka Dean', Intelligence Officer, RSOG, STRPC also yielded (an) M-16 rifle, two .45 caliber pistols, several electronic devices, and subversive documents," Parlade said.
He added that the NPA hit squad that was neutralized in Sta. Rosa, Laguna were survivors of the Batas, Rizal encounter.
They were able to escape from that raid in Baras. So let's hear the lies again of Karapatan and the Makabayan Bloc, regarding this treacherous plans of Joma which went kapoof," Parlade said. (PNA)
