NOLCOM will fail in the Ilocos-Cordillera

Martin Montana
Spokesperson
Chadli Molintas Command
New People's Army - Ilocos-Cordillera
August 29, 2007

Major General Rodrigo Maclang, newly appointed NOLCOM chief, bragged that he will crush the NPA in Northern Luzon before 2010. He was also quoted as saying, "We have targeted for dismantling one guerilla front per brigade until the end of the year. So far, prospects are bright for its attainment." Well, only four months are left and the NOLCOM has yet to dismantle even a single guerrilla front in Northern Luzon! According to the NOLCOM's estimates, there are 20 guerrilla fronts in its area of responsibility that includes the regions of Ilocos, Cordillera, Cagayan, and Central Luzon. The army will concentrate a brigade(1,200-1,500 soldiers) for every guerrilla front. Under the NOLCOM, the 5th ID covers the Ilocos, Cordillera, and Cagayan regions with three brigades � the 501st Bde in Kalinga, Apayao, Cagayan, and Isabela; the 502nd in Mountain Province, Ifugao, Nueva Vizcaya, and part of Benguet; and the 503rd in Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra, and part of Benguet.

In the past months, the 5th ID launched a sustained series of ruthless military operations of various sizes without letup. These have resulted in the temporary dislocation of some NPA units and worse, in the disruption of the people's economic livelihood and several human rights violations. Despite these, the guerrilla fronts in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions are intact while the fascist enemy forces suffered successive defeats in the battlefield.

Multiple Body Blows and Intense Head Blows

From January to July this year, 52 enemy troopers were killed in action, 35 were wounded, and four were captured in 18 military engagements. The engagements consisted of seven ambuscades, four liquidations of enemy spies, two counter-offensives, two encounters, two sniping operations, and a defensive. Eight occurred in Abra , three each in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, and two each in Mountain Province and Kalinga. In 15 of these battles, the NPA held the initiative. The NPA also captured eight high-powered rifles. The biggest battle was the ambush of the 41st IB by the Agustin Begnalen Command in Boliney, Abra on May 16 where eight troopers were killed and seven wounded. The liquidation of enemy spies has also eliminated the enemy's eyes and ears in certain areas. The AFP suffered multiple body blows and several head blows. The AFP had a total of 94 casualties (including four captured officers subsequently released) � the equivalent of a company, or an average of 13 per month. No NPA guerrilla was killed and only a few suffered minor injuries.

In the face of these glaring battle statistics, Maj. Gen. Maclang's boastful claims are hilarious. In fact, the performance of the NPA in the Ilocos and Cordillera in the past seven months has exceeded its record in the past year. In 2006, the AFP had 53 casualties while the NPA had ten; the NPA seized 29 high-powered rifles while the AFP seized six.

Five Offensives, Five Failures

The US-Arroyo regime's Oplan Bantay Laya 2 (OBL 2) plans to crush the revolutionary movement before 2010. OBL 2 has "Five Offensives" � military, economic, legal, political, and propaganda. All of these offensives will fail for the simple reason that they are based on violence, injustice, and falsehood. The NPA in the Ilocos and Cordillera and the rest of the country has proven time and again that it can withstand and resist the enemy's military offensives. The NPA's iron discipline, prowess in battle, superior tactics, mastery of the terrain, and most of all, its unbreakable ties with the masses, have been the keys to the NPA's victories in the military field. The enemy's "economic offensive" is calculated to deceive the masses. The AFP's civic action, socio-economic projects, medical and dental services, are masquerades to make them appear as pro-people and to cover up the AFP's fascist and mercenary character. Thus, the masses may receive such services but at the back of their minds, they know that the AFP is serving the interests of the ruling classes and not of the people.

The enemy's "legal offensive" consists of trumped-up charges aimed to demonize and harass the leaders and members of legal progressive mass organizations, alliances, and party-list groups, and also of the CPP-NPA. State terrorism and harassment will further intensify, now that the Human Security Act legalizes warrantless arrest and detention.

Behind this legal blessing, the AFP continues to carry out extrajudicial killings. The AFP's "political and propaganda offensives" are meant to demonize the revolutionary movement and to glorify and deodorize itself and the Arroyo regime. These are backfiring.

The many lies of the military propandists have been exposed � such as the claim that the NPA burned down the Tonglayan Elementary School, that Simon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan tried to extort money from the school's principal, that the military merely "accompanied home" the six Tubo residents it abducted and detained illegally, that the NPA was responsible for the suspension of the San Juan-Tineg road construction when in fact it was because the military ran away with the funds, the false mass grave and child warriors, and many others. The worst lie of the enemy is its claim that the NPA is responsible for the extrajudicial killings committed by the AFP. The AFP is continuously humilitated by the masses and even by enlightened military officers who speak out the truth and expose the AFP's lies. Recently, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, exposed insider information that Malaca �ang and high-ranking military officials were directly responsible for the slaughter of 14 Marines in Mindanao by using them as bait. Also on June 19 and 22, three AFP generals divulged that the military openly discussed and approved extrajudicial killings in a NOLCOM command conference in 2005 attended by a hundred officers, soldiers and staff from its brigades and battalions. When the generals questioned the decision, they were branded as "binabae."

Like all ambitious operation plans of the AFP attempting to crush the NPA, OBL 2 will utterly fail because it is anti-people, mad, vicious, and most of all, does not have the support of the Filipino people. Even if the enemy has superior numbers and firearms, they lack the keys to victory that the CPP-NPA holds: a just and principled cause, the people's support, and a correct strategy. The fantasies of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her generals in the AFP and PNP to crush the NPA in three years is in vain. During the Marcos dictatorship in 1969-1986, when the balance of military forces was 10 soldiers to every NPA guerrilla, the enemy failed to stop the revolution. How much more now that the NPA has more than 120 guerrilla fronts throughout the country? The NPA's morale is high and steadfast, while that of the enemy is weak and faltering because of its many casualties, the factiousness and innate corruption of the AFP and PNP, the treachery and debauchery of generals who connive with or rule criminal syndicates and pocket AFP funds. Many young officers and men are becoming nauseated by the Arroyo regime's political killings. With such a trend, it is the AFP, not the NPA, that will likely end up weaker in the coming years. The revolution will never die as long as poverty and oppression exist.#

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