Police lead anti-Red rallies in Metro Manila, provinces
ANTI LEFT RALLY: An anti Joma Sison rally was held at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Dec. 26, 2019, the 51st founding aniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines. (Photo by JOAN BONDOC / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Members of the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies held anticommunist rallies in Metro Manila and around the country on Thursday, the 51st founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The rallies were held amid a holiday truce between the government and the communist rebels that was marred on Monday by ambushes of military and police targets in Camarines Norte and Iloilo provinces.
Renato Reyes, secretary general of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, described the mass actions as a “coordinated effort” led by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).
In Metro Manila, the rallies were held at the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City, Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila, Edsa Shrine near the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City, and even at the University of the Philippines Diliman where a jingle blared from a police car calling CPP founder Jose Maria Sison a terrorist.
Police officers led a parade of about 2,000 in Calamba City, Laguna province. Their colleagues in other provinces in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region staged similar activities.
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In a phone interview, Lt. Col. Chitadel Gaoiran, regio¬nal police spokesperson, said most of those who joined were members of the PNP-Highway Patrol Group’s civilian multipliers and Hands Off Our Children, which was formed to stop the alleged recruitment of university students by the the New People’s Army, the CPP’s armed wing.
Article continues after this advertisementThey carried streamers with messages supporting Executive Order No. 70 — the directive that created the task force pursuing local peace talks with the communists.
Army Maj. Ricky Anthony Aguilar, public affairs chief of the 9th Infantry Division based in Pili, Camarines Sur, said anticommunist rallies were held in the cities of Legazpi, Sorsogon, Naga and Masbate, and the town of Daet.
Aguilar said members of the PNP, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the Department of the Interior and Local Government joined the rallies.
Protest actions were also reportedly held in several ci¬ties in Mindanao.
“Today’s coordinated ‘rallies’ by the NTF-Elcac purportedly against the CPP [are] an utter waste of taxpayer money and… a great disservice to the nation,” Reyes said.
The demonstrations, he added, were “us[ing] public funds to spread propaganda that counters the Duterte go¬vernment’s recent pronouncements of resuming peace negotiations with the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines).”
“The peace spoilers in the regime are at it again, trying to derail the talks and poison the air with black propaganda,” Reyes said.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, in a message to reporters on Thursday, said of the CPP’s anniversary: “What are you celebrating? The death of many and the billions of destroyed properties or the billions you extorted?”
‘Bunch of killers’
“You should be ashamed of yourselves, pretending to be fighting for the people,” Lorenzana said. “You are just a bunch of killers, arsonists and extortionists.”
In a statement, AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said “the CPP should heed the writings on the wall ”¦ It will not be long until the CPP dies a natural death.” ——Mariejo S. Ramos, Jeannette I. Andrade, Maricar Cinco, Mar S. Arguelles, Rey Anthony Ostria, Bong S. Sarmiento, JIgger Jerusalem and Leah D. Agonoy
