Recycling of Surrenderees is a Tainted Business of the AFP
The military is now in the business of recycling surrenderees to sell its deceptive propaganda line in the vain hope of maligning and demonizing the revolutionary movement. The latest exhibits are Lito Lannip Bulawit from Basao, Tinglayan, Kalinga and a certain James Biag from Bangnen Norte, Bauko, Mt. Province. These two allegedly surrendered simultaneously last April 8, 2019. The former surrendered at the 503rd Infantry Brigade Headquarters at Calanan, Bulanao, Tabuk and the latter at the Municipal Police Station at Bauko, Mt. Province.
A check from the Leonardo Pacsi Command, NPA-Mountain Province, readily belie that Lito Bulawit was with the NPA unit until 2016 as alleged by the military. He did not stay long. He joined the NPA in late 2002 up until the third quarter of 2013. His unit approved his request for a short leave to attend to family immediate concerns. He did not return for duty since then. It is not true that he lielowed for the alleged reasons cited by the military. He was a responsible Red fighter when he was with the NPA but he resorted to lie low status due to the force of circumstances that he faced with his family. It is obvious that the alleged reasons cited by Maj. Carol Lacuata of the PROCOR are standard media propaganda of the AFP-PNP everytime surrenderees are being paraded in the media. And it is not true that the rifle that he surrendered came from the NPA. From this, it is clear that intelligence agents who arranged for his surrender are only interested in the reward money that surrenderees like Bulawit can claim, especially because it is higher when a rifle is included.
The same is true of James Biag who is a civilian who was falsely accused as an NPA, illegally arrested and detained. Failing to incriminate him as a member of the NPA, they downgraded him as a member of the local militia. This typical modus operandi of recycling surrenderees to spice up their ulterior motives of conjuring a picture that NPA elements are being disgruntled and to negate the fast political isolation of the US-Duterte regime by the disgruntled Filipino masses of his tyrannical rule.
These spates of parading surrenderees shows how low the AFP has stooped down to save its tarnished reputation amidst the consecutive exposes of corruption, extra-judicial killings and its role in protecting large-scale projects at the expense of the people. These outrageous stories, which they manipulate according to the situation that they want to project in order to prop up the crumbling credibility of the regime that employs them, only succeeds in showing the truth – that whatever they do, they cannot prevent the revolutionary movement from steadily growing and advancing. As the state forces desperately try to downplay the revolutionary armed struggle, the more it gains the trust and love of the masses who have long been oppressed and exploited by the system that the AFP-PNP is protecting. Furthermore, this only exposes the fallacy of the surrender campaign that the AFP-PNP is peddling – for surrenderees cannot look forward to a peaceful life because they will always be hounded by the spectre of prosecution and will always be in danger of being jailed even if they had returned to their former lives. This only leaves the Red fighters and the struggling peoples no other option but to continue fighting until total victory is achieved.
Fight the arbitrary and forced surrenders of civilians!
Advance the national-democratic revolution until total victory!
Long live the New People’s Army!