News
SUCCESSFUL OFFENSIVES LAUNCHED THIS APRIL
An officer of the Philippine Army was killed and 16 high-powered rifles were seized in two separate offensives by the New People�s Army (NPA) this April.
2Lt. Joel D. Pacis was killed when a platoon of NPA guerrillas ambushed the 48th IB�s �Bravo� coy on the morning of April 25 in Balbalan, Kalinga-Apayao. Pacis, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, was one of the unit�s commanding officers. Two other soldiers were wounded in the ambush.
Meanwhile, the NPA successfully raided a detachment of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Mungkayo, Compostela Valley without firing a single shot. The CAFGU elements were unable to fight back. Instead, they surrendered a dozen M14s, three Garands, one M16 and a radio to the Red fighters.
ERAP: FASCIST CHIEF, HOODLUM, PATRIARCH �- MAKIBAKA
The Makabayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA) assailed Joseph Estrada for being a �fascist chief, hoodlum and patriarch�. In a statement issued on the occasion of International Working Women�s Day this March 8, the revolutionary women�s organization condemned Estrada�s use of flattery and macho bravura on the Filipino masses to make them consent to the Visiting Forces Agreement; the removal of all constitutional restrictions on foreign investments; the comeback of the Marcoses and their cronies; the return of human rights violators to their posts; and the restoration of the processes and institutions of dictatorship. Said MAKIBAKA, Estrada the patriarch wants nothing more than to turn people, as he turns women, into �willing slaves�.
MAKIBAKA charged that Estrada was a �fascist chief� for taking a rigid stand on peace talks with the NDF while battering even women and children with bombs in an all-out war in the countryside of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
By Estrada�s own doing, hundreds of women by the day are participating in the revolutionary movement, according to MAKIBAKA. It asserted that increasingly, women are finding out that it is to their best interest to smash the blatantly feudal and patriarchal Estrada regime by relentlessly pursuing the national democratic revolution.
GRP CONTINUES TO VIOLATE JELYN DAYONG�S RIGHTS
The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) persists in violating the rights of Jelyn Dayong. Dayong, 17, was left wounded by the military after her unit was ambushed. The ambuscade occurred last February 16 in Alegria, Surigao del Norte. The military did not provide Dayong with any medical attention, to which she had a right after she had been rendered hors d�combat in the ambush. Instead, her photograph was taken by the military for propaganda purposes.
After being brought by villagers to the hospital, the military arrested Dayong and maliciously boasted to the mass media that they were the ones who brought her there.
Despite Dayong�s declaration of her desire to be reunited with her family, the regime imprisoned her. At present, Dayong is being tightly guarded by the military while under detention by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The Dayongs and members of human rights organizations assisting them in their fight to secure her release are being intimidated and harassed. The DSWD has been conniving with the military in limiting the Dayong family�s access to Jelyn and depriving her of the services of human rights groups. Her family and progressive organizations have been warned that they were under close surveillance.
This April 19, a demonstration was launched by militant organizations along with the Dayong family to condemn the GRP�s continued violation of the victim�s rights.
Meanwhile, the NDFP has demanded the immediate release of Dayong and other political detainees in accordance with the GRP�s obligations under CARHRIHL. In a statement issued last April 13, Luis Jalandoni, NDFP negotiating panel chair, said Dayong should be released immediately so she could be with her family, relatives and friends. He added: �Putting her under the custody of the DSWD will mean she is still not free.�
Dayong is a medic assigned to an Armed Propaganda Unit of the NPA. She hails from the Mamanwa tribe, one of the most oppressed tribes in the mountains of Northern Mindanao.
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