The NPA has seen some huge successes in recent days. In Northern Luzon, the 5th ID of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) suffered some of their biggest losses in a long time when they waged a major offensive against the NPA in the Cordillera Region. The Cordillera is characterized by a high mountain range called the Cordillera Central. The region is about 110-200 miles north of Manila. I didn’t know that the NPA were so huge there, but apparently they are. People called Igorots live in this area.
The 5th ID offensive was directed at the Agustin Begnalen Command of the NPA, which is active in the area. Between January 27 to February 4, the 5th ID suffered 29 soldiers killed and 35 more wounded by the NPA. Those are some pretty devastating figures.
Apparently the NPA has now figured out how to use IED’s, possibly via the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Chechens in Chechnya or the Iraqi insurgents in Iraq. This technology has been perfected lately, especially by the Iraqis, which then moved to Chechnya and especially Afghanistan lately. It stands to reason that the same technological progress has now been perfected by NPA, as most to nearly all of the casualties were due to IED’s.
The AFP responded by accusing the NPA of using “landmines,” but they don’t use landmines. The NPA issued a press release stating that fact.
They also issued a press release, copied below, in which they actually mourned the dead and wounded enemy troops, who, said that NPA are just mostly poor peasants and urban poor just like the ranks of the NPA. That’s a pretty magnanimous act for an insurgent army, and I don’t think any Muslim insurgency would ever say such a thing.
Furthermore, it’s great PR as the insurgents really take the high road when they mourn the loss of cannon fodder of the state. In the same press release, they called on the troops of the 5thID to abandon their positions, seek out the nearest NPA unit and surrender to them, and the NPA would help to lead them out of the area. Excellent tactics.
Those of you on this site who oppose the NPA are asked what should be done in the catastrophe called the Philippines instead.
AFP Junior Officers and Rank and Files soldiers, defy your fake Commander-In- Chief
Simon “Ka Filiw” Naogsan, Spokesperson
February 6, 2010
We condole with the families of the 29 soldiers slain and 35 wounded in six clashes with the New People’s Army from January 27 to February 4, just as we would mourn had any of our Red fighters fallen. There will be more casualties if the ongoing massive military operations will not end. Ordinary soldiers are thrust into doomed operations while their generals are enriching themselves thru corruption and as protectors of the illegal drug trade.
Most, if not all, of the AFP casualties probably came from poor peasant and working class families just like the NPA fighters. The main difference is that the rank and file troops unleashed by the 5th ID serve the exploiting classes of big landlords, corrupt bureaucrats and their imperialist masters, while the NPA fights for the emancipation of the poor from the shackles of poverty, oppression and exploitation, and for the defense of land, life, livelihood and resources.
The Cordillera People’s Democratic Front thus calls on the rank and file soldiers as well as junior officers of the 5th ID to defy the orders of their superiors in this doomed military operation. The current military maneuvers have no purpose other than to prepare the region for the arrival of the US troops for the Balikatan joint exercise starting this month and provide security for the subsequent entry of large mining companies.
In particular, we call on the rank and file soldiers to defy orders from their immediate superiors who command them to conduct military operations against the NPA. They can file their leave of absence based on any alibi just so as not to participate in the operation.
They must not proceed to their target area but instead stay in safer grounds until the operation is terminated. They can pass vital information to or inform any unit of the NPA of their plans so that the Red fighters can advice them where to pass safely. We advise junior officers not to lead their men in areas where they will surely be ambushed.
We encourage them to join the underground Lt. Crispin Tagamolila Movement or resign and find better and more honorable jobs if they are not ready yet to join the revolutionary movement so that together we hasten the overthrow of this corrupt, anti-people and despicable reactionary regime and build a better tomorrow.
Finally, we call on Igorot military officers not to allow themselves to be used against the interest of their fellow national minorities. The transformation of the military as an “investment defense force” of large-scale mining companies that have appropriated 2/3 of the land area of the Cordillera is deplorable.
Equally detestable is the appropriation by soldiers of the 503rd Bde of a monthly tax of one sack of ore from every small scale mining tunnel in Lacub and Baay-Licuan, Abra. As sons of the mountains, we must all uphold the good aspects of indigenous tribal ways, and the sacredness of life and nature’s resources.
When the imperialist pillage of the Cordillera and the entire nation ends, then shall we enjoy the fruits of the mountains, forests, rivers and plains of this country. We will end our mourning and come out of our dap-ays to join in the feast of national liberation.
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Robert, do you think the Philippines should have existed as a country in the first place?
Yes I do.