Reds hit Army’s SOMO violation in Bicol

AFP FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY — Communist rebels in the Bicol has accused the military of violating its own Suspension of Offensive Military Operation (SOMO).

In a statement from the National Democratic Front-Bicol Information Office, it said that at least three local units of New People’s Army rebels have reported that the Army’s Peace and Development Teams (PDT) continue to operate in the villages of Antolon, Patag and Poloan in Caramoan, Camarines Sur; Barangays Villapaz and Sinagaran in Jovellar town; Mamlad in Pio Duran; and Lumacao in Guinobatan, all in Albay; and Barangays Marinas and Cabiguhan in Gubat town, Manhumlad and Balocawe in Matnog town, in Sorsogon.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ breach of its own ceasefire declaration reveals its hypocrisy characteristic of ‘Oplan Bayanihan’s’ psywar policy,” the NDFP-Bicol said on Christmas day.

The NDF-Bicol added: “While AFP spokespersons smirk through their propagandas and fall flat at representing the military as champions of peace, the rest of its minions go wild in the countrysides committing grave human rights and international humanitarian law offenses.”

The Inquirer email a copy of the rebel statement to Lt. Colonel Domingo Gobway, the spokesman of the Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) based here in Camp Nakar, for the military reaction on the NDF’s accusation.

“There is no SOMO violation as alleged. After verification, our units on the ground were not conducting combat operations,” Gobway, said in a text message Wednesday evening.

Gobway explained that the PDT teams are just confine in some parts of the village “on a semi-permanent basis just like a typical detachment”.

“They are not there for combat operation but for peace and development,” he said.

In a report, AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Domingo Tutaan said the NPA rebels attacked military detachments in Casiguran and Gubat towns on Dec 22.

He said the communist guerillas fired at the detachments and withdrew. The incident reported no casualties.

The rebels in Bicol insisted that the PDT teams conduct “combat, psywar, and intelligence operations and are therefore poised at launching attacks and poisoning the minds of the people”.

The NDF-Bicol echoed the demand of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for the military “to stand down and pull out their troops from territories of the People’s Democratic Government”.

The rebel warned that the government forces continue to conduct combat operation during the supposed SOMO period, the NPA rebels will be force to act in self-defense and fight back.

In the past Yuletide ceasefires, both armed protagonists had resorted to propaganda wars by accusing each other of truce violations

On Dec. 20, President Benigno Aquino approved the SOMO recommendation from the military and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and declared a 26-day ceasefire with communist rebels starting at midnight of December 20 and lasting until January 15, 2014.

On Dec. 18, the CPP declared that the NPA rebels would observe a unilateral ceasefire from December 24 to 26 and again from December 31 to January 2.

The CPP said the truce was in keeping with the Filipino people’s traditional observance of Christmas and to pave the way for the party’s 45^th anniversary celebration Thursday (Dec. 26).

According to the CCP, the anniversary celebrations which will be attended by allies and sympathizers of the rebel movement will be held in areas which they claimed as “under the jurisdiction and authority of the organs of the people’s democratic government”.

The party said the assemblies would also serve as an opportunity to generate and collect funds and other material support for rehabilitation efforts in the Yolanda areas.

The NPA, the CPP’s armed wing, has been waging Maoist-inspired protracted war against the government for the past 44 years, considered as the world’s longest-running communist rebellion.