On NPA’s 53rd anniversary, PNP vows continuous anti-terrorism ops vs rebels

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has vowed to continue anti-terrorist operations as the New People’s Army (NPA), the communist rebel front waging guerrilla warfare in the countryside, celebrates its 53rd anniversary.

In a statement on Tuesday, March 29, PNP said that it would continue to press operations against the NPA, through the implementation of arrest orders against its members which were issued by courts.

PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said that NPA has already become irrelevant, saying that it has nothing to celebrate because its existence is an affront to the lives of people they have claimed.

“The CPP-NPA continues to wallow in irrelevance on the 53rd year of its campaign of terror and violence that has only made life more miserable for poor people in the countryside,” Carlos said.

“The CPP-NPA has nothing to celebrate because its anniversary serves only as a grim reminder of the thousands of Filipino lives lost over the past five decades of the underground movement’s murderous history,” the PNP chief said.

As proof of their commitment to anti-insurgency operations, PNP said they arrested a certain Elmer Forro Sr., allegedly a secretary-general of party-list group Bayan Muna in Iloilo, for an outstanding arrest order based on murder complaints.

“Forro is the subject of Warrants of Arrest issued by Hon. Gemalyn Faunillo-Tarol, Presiding Judge of RTC Branch 76 of Janiuay, Iloilo in Criminal Case No. 21-0908 for Attempted Murder and Criminal Case No. 21-0909 for the crime of Murder with no bail recommended,” PNP said in the same statement.

INQUIRER.net has sought the side of Bayan Muna but they have not yet given any statement as of posting time.

However, the group in the past has maintained that they are not part of the communist movement, claiming that they are only being red-tagged or linked to NPA.

Activist groups have been accused over the course of the current administrations as either supporter, financiers, or recruitment grounds for NPA and its mother bureau, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Recently, groups have started to push back against red-tagging, filing complaints against government officials especially those from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

READ: Red-tagging: It’s like ‘living with a target on your head’ 

Earlier, CPP called for an ‘intensified recruitment’ on NPA’s 53rd anniversary to increase the communist movement’s military strength.

“There must be a clear plan to recruit thousands upon thousands of Red fighters from among the peasant masses, especially the youth,” the CPP said in a statement.

In the same manner, government forces called on the rebels to put down their arms and rejoin society.

READ: On NPA’s 53rd anniversary: CPP calls for ‘intensified recruitment’

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