The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said yesterday “the waves of attacks range from all-out military offensives harming civilians and illegal arrests and filing of trumped-up charges against activists.”
“These are all part of the narrative of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) branding revolutionary organizations as extortionists-terrorists. While Philippine Army units of the AFP are launching all-out military offensives in the countryside, the PNP-CIDG (Philippine National Police- Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) units are arresting activists and members of progressive organizations and NGOs in the urban centers,” said KMP secretary general Antonio Flores.
Flores said “thousands of peasant and Lumad families are aff ected by the government’s all-out war policy.”
He also said that “since the government’s termination of the peace talks and declaration of all out-war, two development workers were arrested by the PNP-CIDG in separate incidents in Bacolod and Baguio cities – Rogina Quilop of the Center for People’s Resources and Services-Negros and Sarah Abellon Alikes of the Regional Development Center-Kattinulong dagiti Umili ti Amianan (RDC-Kaduami).
“Quilop is being tagged as a finance officer of the NPA in Negros while Alikes, also tagged as NPA finance officer, was unjustly implicated in the burning of two Philex trucks in Benguet,” he noted.
He also cited reports that last Monday, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Metro Manila campaign officer Ferdinand Castillo was arrested in Caloocan City and was detained at CIDG compound in Camp Crame.
“We are alarmed with this rising cases of arrests and filing of trumped-up charges against political activists,” Flores said.
KMP also reported that “civilian evacuations were reported after the AFP launched heavy military attacks in Mindanao particularly in Davao region and Bukidnon, Masbate and Sorsogon in Bicol, Mindoro Occidental and Batangas in Southern Luzon, and focused military operations Central Luzon and Cagayan Valley.”
“Datu Kailo Bontulan, Lumad leader from Talaingod, Davao del Norte have expressed fears that they would be caught in the crossfi re and killed in the AFP’s military operations,” Flores said.
KMP also reported that in Alabel, Sarangani province, more than a hundred Lumad families evacuated over the weekend from their communities in Barangay Datal Anggas after the 10th and 73rd IB of the Philippine Army started aerial bombardments. Media reports stated that the AFP soldiers were in pursuit of New People’s Army (NPA) fighters after a series of armed clashes when the 10th IB sent MG250 attack helicopters and fired cannons towards the Lumad communities occupied by civilians.
“These rights abuses all the more justify the continuation of the stalled peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP,” Flores said.
KMP accused Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Ano of “launching all-out offensives through combat operations and dirty propaganda war using ‘extortion-terrorist tagging’ to discredit and overturn the progress of the peace talks.”
