Slain rebels part of squad out to kill gov’t leaders – Año

BY CHITO CHAVEZ

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) confirmed Tuesday that the five New People’s Army (NPA) rebels killed in a shootout in Rizal last month were part of a death squad deployed in Southern Luzon on orders of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Joma Sison.

In a statement, the DILG bared that the fatalities were tapped to “assassinate top national and local government leaders and police and military officers over blood debts.’’

“We can now confirm that the five NPA members killed in Barangay San Juan, Baras, Rizal were part of a death squad that was supposed to carry out the directive of Joma Sison to assassinate government and civilian leaders,” said DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año.

The DILG said that Año is one of the targets of the NPA.

“Isang tagumpay para sa atin na napigilan ang mga ganitong mga operasyon ng NPA lalo pa’t ito’y isang tuwirang pagbabanta sa buhay ng mga pinuno ng bansa at maging ng mga sibilyan,” Año said.

The DILG disclosed that Sison recently released an order from his self-imposed exile in The Netherlands to the CPP’s armed wing, the NPA, to deploy so-called armed partisan units and special operations groups to cities, and major town centers “to carry out attacks against government forces and to mete out punishment against enemy units and officers who have committed bloody crimes against the people.”

This was confirmed by CPP Central Committee Information Officer Marcos Valduena who said that “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.”

Año urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Makabayan Bloc to condemn the deployment of NPA death squads in urban areas to prove that they are truly not members or fronts of the Communist Party.

Año claimed that the initial plan of the NPA assassination unit was to establish a terrorist cell in Rizal which will house their Southern Luzon operations, a location that will bring them close to Metro Manila to carry out the orders of Sison.

 SHOOTOUT IN RIZAL

Año disclosed that the NPA members killed in a shootout with the military and police in Baras, Rizal on Dec. 17, 2020 were responsible for various extortion and terroristic activities victimizing local government officials, businessmen, and ordinary individuals.

According to the report, the lawmen were on their way to serve a warrant of arrest for frustrated murder to alias Dads/Darwin, head of the finance staff and Execom member of NPA’s Sub-Regional Military Area 4A, when the encounter happened in Sitio Malalim, San Juan, Baras, Rizal.

Five rebels were killed during the gunfight, two of them remained unidentified, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

He said that among those neutralized were one alias Sandra, a Rebolusyonaryong Buwis sa Kaaway na Uri (RBKU) staff and wife of alias Luis, secretary of Guerilla Front Cesar; and an alias Onli, regional intelligence officer, who were actively generating funds for the communist group through extortion and harassment of innocent civilians.

Recovered from the scene were two M16 rifles, two .45-caliber pistols, one Uzi, several electronic devices, and subversive documents. (Chito A. Chavez)