Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Sunday lashed out at the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for claiming that the United States was behind the Abu Sayyaf attack in Bohol last week.
Lorenzana said the CPP had become “delusional” and had become “the victim of its own propaganda” when it claimed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was behind the bandits’ incursion in Central Visayas.
“The CPP, as before, has become delusional and can no longer distinguish between what is fact and what is fantasy,” Lorenzana said.
“It has clearly become a victim of its own propagandizing and has rendered itself inutile and an unreliable source of the truth. It is not and has never been credible,” he said.
Last week, Abu Sayyaf members arrived in Bohol but were cornered by the military and the police.
The ensuing firefight killed six rebel gunmen as well as three soldiers and one policeman.
However, the CPP on Friday accused the United States of being behind the Abu Sayyaf attack, which Lorenzana denied.
“Definitely, transparency is not a value they have. Just like the Plaza Miranda bombing which they hatched, executed, denied, and eventually admitted, the CPP is likely to create scenarios and will pass off these lies as the truth in order to push its selfish, antipeople and antigovernment motives, such as extortion, kidnapping and intimidation,” Lorenzana said.
“If there is a fake organization composed of individuals pretending to be patriots and nationalists, it is these communist terrorists,” he said.
In its statement, the CPP questioned statements from the Philippine government and called the military operations “overkill.”
“The news stories regarding the supposed arrival and presence of members of the Abu Sayyaf criminal bandit group in Bohol island smacks of US yarn,” the CPP said.
It said the Philippine Air Force dropped nine bombs in Barangays Napo, Calenti and Banahao in Inabanga, Bohol, forcing at least 1,200 local residents to evacuate.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines media office, known for spinning fake news stories, has produced a highly dubious story of no less than 60 fully armed men who traveled three hundred kilometers by boat from Sulu to Bohol, unhampered by the whole AFP establishment, then upstream to a place unknown to them with only a general plan to ‘target tourists,’” the CPP said.