Reds set to revive urban hit squads

MANILA, Philippines — The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is forming hit squads based in urban areas against police officers, military men and government officials akin to the “Sparrow” units of the 1980s.

“There is a standing order for the NPA to form partisan teams to mete out punishment against enemy units and officers who have committed bloody crimes against the people,” the CPP said under the name of a certain Marco Valbuena, purportedly the CPP chief information officer.

The CPP cited as a “successful punishment” the killing of Manobo tribal leader Jumar Bucales, who was killed in an ambush by the NPA on Oct. 4 in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Bucales was a staunch supporter of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, saying its passage would help indigenous people communities ward off extortion and killings perpetrated by communist rebels. The CPP, however, claimed Bucales was the leader of the Magat-Bagani paramilitary vigilante group responsible for the 2015 Lianga massacre, where a tribal school director and two others were killed.

“In due time, the NPA will be able to form more partisan teams who can carry out punitive actions in the cities or close to the cities,” Valbuena said.

The NPA’s Special Partisan Units (Sparus) were active in the 1980s during the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

The communist rebel group then created an urban guerrilla unit called the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), which consists of hit squads that kill government officials and suspected government agents. ABB would later split from the CPP-NPA over ideological differences.

The Sparus were also called “Sparrow units” for their swift assassinations, and they often elude arrest.

The Inquirer asked Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperson Jr. to react to the statement, but both had not responded for comment.

Members and supporters of the CPP hinted at the revival of the Sparus during an online forum on Dec. 26, in time of the CPP’s 52nd anniversary, and CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison, who was among the guests, said “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.”