Esperon testifies vs Joma Sison, 36 others over Inopacan carnage

BY MARTIN A. SADONGDONG

National Secretary Adviser (NSA) Hermogenes Esperon Jr. revealed Friday that he has testified before the court against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and 36 others in connection with the alleged purge of several New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Inopacan, Leyte – known as the Inopacan massacre – which was discovered by the military in 2006.

During the continuation of the trial held last March 8 at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 38, Esperon said he presented his personal account of the Inopacan massacre which transpired during the “Oplan Venereal Disease (VD)” supposedly launched by the CPP – and conducted by the NPA – in the 1980s to purge suspected government sympathizers among the party’s rank.

“Oplan VD, as it was named in Leyte, claimed the lives of an estimated 300 people as the CPP-NPA attempted to clean its ranks of alleged military informers and counter revolutionaries. It was likewise carried out to neutralize civilians suspected of being uncooperative to the CPP-NPA’s plans and agenda,” Esperon said in a statement.

Sison, who is in a self-exile in Hague, The Netherlands, and 36 other key figures of the CPP are facing charges for 15 counts of murder in connection with the Inopacan massacre.

Esperon is one of the 29 witnesses to the case. He said he personally visited the mass graves of the massacre victims when they were first discovered in Barangay Caulisihan, Inopacan, Leyte on Aug. 31, 2006.

During the discovery, more than 100 sets of human bones were found by the authorities – 15 of them were identified – which led to the filing of the cases as recommended by Esperon, who was at the time the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Esperon said he has since pursued the case against Sison and other top communist officials. He said he presented various pieces of evidence, including a copy of “Suffer Thy Comrades,” a book that detailed the interrogations and tortures conducted by the NPA among its members, and written by former rebel and award-winning author Robert Francis Garcia.

He said he also submitted reports obtained by the military during its operations against the CPP-NPA including documents entitled “Mga Aral mula sa Naganap na Impiltrasyon sa Hangganang Quezon-Bicol,” which was written in 1983 by the Melito Glor Command (MGC), an NPA unit; and “Pangkalahatang Pagbabalik-aral sa Mahahalagang Pangyayari at Pasya (1989-1991).”

According to Esperon, the MGC document “detailed how the MGC investigated, tortured, and buried in mass graves suspected infiltrators” while the second report discussed “the alarm given to territorial units, the internal purgings, and how it affected the organization.”

The NSA also said he submitted as evidence a 2006 video clip of former Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo “acknowledging the purgings while committing that the Party will compensate the victims and the families they left behind.”