LUCENA CITY—Communist rebels kept mum on President Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal for a truce to pave the way for COVID-19 prevention measures, but came up with their own directive to wage war on the disease that has already killed more than 3,000 people worldwide and infected more than 100,000 others.
In a statement issued on Tuesday (March 18), the Communist Party of the Philippines ordered its armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA), its medical officers and fighters “to assist the people and their health committees in the campaign of mass mobilization against COVID-19.”
It said rebels can help in sanitation drives and cleanup campaigns in villages in areas where NPA operates.
CPP said the revolutionary movement “can facilitate the free distribution of face masks, alcohol, soap and other cleaning agents.”
“They can mobilize people to produce face masks using other possible alternative material,” said CPP.
“They can help spread the use of herbal medicine to help strengthen the people’s resistance to similar coronavirus strains,” it added.
The health committees of the rebel movement “must lead in studying and raising awareness about COVID-19 in order to encourage a collective people’s response,” CPP said.