Rejoinder to Gen. Dickson’s accusations of “Fake News” by NPA
Amidst the badly tattered image of the PNP leadership, Police Brigadier General Israel Ephraim Dickson, regional director of the Police Regional Office – Cordillera (PRO-COR) is frantically carrying out propaganda somersault to dispel the hierarchic shake up. With no less than the former PNP Chief Albayalde embroiled in the ‘ninja cops’ fiasco and other anomalies, tremors in the PNP organization is obviously rocking the morale of the country’s police officers.
Gen. Dickson is all in his offensive mood to earn ‘pogi points’ over other aspirants for the PNP’s top positions nowadays. Hoping to garner the needed merits to outdo others, he vaunts of terrific albeit unbelievable achievements in the fight against revolutionaries in his area of responsibility. In keeping with the orders of his fascist commander in chief, Dickson proves himself a sycophant and loyal disciple of a tyrant, parroting the dogma of the “Whole of Nation Approach” to end the people’s armed struggle. Thus, the series of obviously stage-managed surrender ceremonies of so-called NPA commanders, fighters and supporters took center stage in the mainstream local media with the General hugging the limelight.
However, in a slapdash hurry to beat the yearend report and collect the hefty surrender bounty, his convoluted made up figures smacks of comedy. He was evidently fooling himself in saying that NPAs in Kalinga are “already disgruntled and sowing intrigues through fake news” in an effort to dispute the recent statement issued by the Lejo Cawilan Command (LCC) of NPA-Kalinga sent to media condemning the bogus surrender campaign of the US-Duterte regime.
Dickson wishes to obscure the fact that the 69 residents of Lubuagan cited in the LCC statement are civilians who were falsely accused and declared by the 50th IB as surrenderers in 2016 after having been summoned to a meeting by the operating troops of the said battalion. This is a different case from the CAFGUs also presented by the 50th IB as NPA surrenderers this 2019 in Pinukpok, Kalinga. And these are not fake news. The concerned citizens of Lubuagan and Pinukpok, Kalinga will themselves attest to the veracity of these information.
Will Dickson explain how a 77-year old senior citizen from Sallapadan, Abra functions as a member of milisyang bayan to be included in the recent case of ten “surrenderers” last October 24 in Bangued, Abra? And what about the four old women from barangay Buaya, Balbalan, Kalinga in their 50’s and 60’s who were presented by the PNP Kalinga as NPAs also on the same day in Tabuk, Kalinga? The said ten “surrenderers” from Sallapadan vehemently protested the PNP’s accusations. Meanwhile, residents of barangay Buaya and other communities of Balbalan also immediately disclaimed that the four women were NPAs. On the other hand, residents of barangay Mabaca, Balbalan, Kalinga can testify that Alex Tongdo recently presented by the PNP PRO-COR office as “Ka Diwa”, is a recycled surrenderer who already submitted himself to the PNP and 50th IB in Kalinga last 2017.
Presenting civilians as surrenderers from the NPA, milisyang bayan, Sangay ng Partido sa Lokalidad (SPL) or revolutionary mass organizations after being summoned to a meeting by the AFP-PNP to pledge allegiance to the government, has already become an exposed despicable tactic commonly employed by the AFP-PNP throughout the entire country. This would explain the more than 4,000 “surrenderers” to date flaunted by the AFP-PNP as proof of the “success” of their surrender campaign under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP). This, in tandem with the boring chorus of obviously AFP-PNP dictated and DILG orchestrated declarations of the CPP-NPA-NDF as “persona non grata” from local government units (LGU), are tawdry gimmicks to deceitfully depict that the CPP-NPA is rapidly losing the support of the common people.
But evertytime the NPA launches a successful tactical offensive against troops of the AFP-PNP-CAFGU, the fascists vent their ire against the people in retaliation, subjecting them to indiscriminate straffing, mortar shelling and bombing, as what happened after the recent ambush of operating troops of the AFP-PNP in Besao, Mountain Province last October 25. The AFP-PNP-CAFGU simply cannot deny the hundreds of civilians they have massacred and killed extra-judicially in their brutal total war against the people.
Dickson is a hypocrite to say that the validation for E-CLIP is undertaken by the LGUs and other government line agencies and not by the military. The people themselves, most especially the peasants in the countrysides, know that it is the AFP-PNP that has been viciously redtagging and enlisting civilians as targets for their surrender campaign and forcing them to “voluntarily surrender” with threats of harsher measures if they refuse to do so. The more than 4,000 civilians who have become victims of this fake surrender campaign will bear witness to this.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), organizing formations from the regional down to the barangay levels, is virtually a civil-military junta putting civilian authority under military dictates within the much publicized “Whole of Nation Approach” of the US-Duterte Regime’s current counter-insurgency scheme Oplan Kapanatagan. Under this setup, LGUs and government line agencies are coerced to “fully cooperate” with the AFP-PNP and actively participate in all counter-insurgency measures in a desperate and futile attempt to render the CPP-NPA as a negligible force before the end of Duterte’s term on 2022.
If we are to believe the AFP-PNP’s deceptions and machinations, this would mean that the NPA should have already been totally wiped out. Rhetorical proclamations of “victory” against the CPP-NPA-NDF have been heard of time and again from successive reactionary regimes since the Marcos dictatorship. Let these fascists drown in their foolishness. Because amidst rapidly deteriorating social and economic conditions under Duterte’s despotic rule, the people certainly know that their armed revolution is steadfastly pressing forward. Nothing can be farther from the truth. ###
Ka Martin Montana
Spokesperson