PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP-NPA tags Malacanang, AFP as masterminds of Llamas assassination, vows to punish perpetrators of political killings

Information Bureau, Communist Party of the Philippines
Press Release, May 30, 2006

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today strongly condemned Malacanang and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for masterminding the assassination of former CPP leader and National Democratic Front (NDF) peace consultant Sotero "Ka Teroy" Llamas in Tabaco, Albay yesterday even as it vowed to punish the Black Army of death squads directed by the AFP and orchestrated by the Malaca�ang Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COC-IS).

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said the assassination of Llamas patently and clearly bear the fingerprints of the AFP Black Army and the COC-IS. "The assassination of Llamas and the series of killings targetting leaders and members of legal progressive mass forces and party-list organizations are meant to terrorize, cripple and crush them. Malacanang is most worried of these forces and organizations as these now stand as the mightiest force at the forefront in the struggle of the broad united opposition against the regime."

The CPP has issued orders for the New People's Army (NPA) to go after the killer of Llamas and other victims of the AFP's Black Army of death squads and its orchestrators in the COC-IS, said Rosal "Those principally responsible for the series of political killings will be made to answer for their fascist crimes." The Black Army is a shadowy group of assassins commanded by trusted pro-Arroyo military officers who directly take orders from Malacanang COC-IS.

Llamas' assassination has signalled that "the Arroyo regime's campaign of political killings is now targetting nationally prominent leaders identified with the progressive movement," Rosal said. "This confirms our information that the COC-IS has recently instructed its fascist Arroyo loyalists to step up the campaign to liquidate principal leaders of the progressive movement, especially targetting now those included in the list of 49 respondents being accused by the Department of Justice of rebellion."

"The DOJ charge sheet is now a virtual hit list for the AFP-Black Army of death squads," said Rosal noting that aside from Llamas, another respondent Philip Limjoco, who was abducted last May 7, remains incommunicado and is in grave danger of being liquidated. "The COC-IS has resorted to assassinating and abducting the principal leaders of the progressive and anti-Arroyo forces after a series of frustration in trying pin them down legally with trumped-up charges and manufactured evidence."

"The campaign to assassinate the progressive anti-Arroyo leaders stem from the desperate effort to paralyze these forces, terrorize the people and derail efforts to protest against and bring down the illegitimate, corrupt, rotten, pro-imperialist and brutal rule of Gloria Arroyo," said Rosal.

Rosal added that the NPA has been ordered to intensify its tactical offensives against fascist and pro-Arroyo military and paramilitary forces nationwide to help weaken the Arroyo regime and punish those who have committed grievous crimes against the people. He also called on the Filipino people to intensify their efforts in all fields of struggle to oust Gloria Arroyo and her fascist ilk. "The most effective way of ending the Arroyo regime's political killings is by ending the regime itself."

"Bloody Intrigue"

Rosal dismissed as "bloody intrigue" Malacanang's spin that the New People's Army (NPA) is behind the killing of Llamas. "There is no emnity between Ka Teroy and the revolutionary movement. He has always remained a respected friend of the CPP-NPA-NPF and his contributions to the revolutionary cause are duly recognized and appreciated by the revolutionary forces. The revolutionary movement has maintained good relations with him even after he took a leave from the mainstream of the movement."

Rosal reiterated that "there is no purge" going on within the CPP-NPA. He called the "purge spin" being propagated by Malacanang as a desperate psywar ploy concocted by Norberto Gonzales and his ilk of fascist criminals in the AFP in the vain hope of covering up Malacanang's responsibility for the series of political killings targetting the progressive and anti-Arroyo forces."

Rosal also lambasted Malacanang for also insinuating that the group of former AFP colonel, senator and Reform the Armed Forces leader Gregorio Honasan as the one behind the killing of Llamas. "This time, the Malacanang is trying to divide the broad anti-Arroyo opposition by trying to pit them against one another. Malacanang's spin doctors float one bloody intrigue after another to evade and shift responsibility for its serial killings."

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