#title:No excuses whatsoever for the 5th ID's organic units in the abduction and torture of schoolchildren!<br>
@@@@@<h1>No excuses whatsoever for the 5th ID's organic units in the abduction and torture of schoolchildren!</h1><!-- Simon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan, Spokesperson, CPDF, June 23, 2007 </em><br><br>
Some pupils of the Mountain Province General Comprehensive High School (MPGCHS) painstakingly traverse long distances for a minimum of 10 hours from the school grounds in Bangaan, Sagada to their village in Kili, Tubo, Abra to bring home beaming stories to their parents, barriomates and peers of their first day in school. This time however, six of them ended up being abducted and tortured by the fascist criminal troops of the AFP.<br><br>
Last Friday, June 15, 2007, operating troops of the 54th Infantry Battalion abducted three boys and three girls, all students of the MPGCHS, Bangaan Annex, Bangaan, Sagada, along the Bangaan-Buasao-Kili foot trail. They have detained the schoolchildren for several days now, informing neither the children's parents nor the school principal of the incident. The soldiers subjected the children to harsh treatment, physical and psychological torture, interrogation and death threats.<br><br>
The entire village of Kili, with the help of the neighboring villages in northern Sagada, organized search teams to locate the missing schoolchildren. Later, they found out that army troops detained the schoolchildren at a military camp in Lagangilang, Abra. The fascist troops refuse to release the children despite pleas of the villagefolk.<br><br>
Once more, the AFP committed grave crimes against the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera by abducting and torturing these innocent school children. A year ago, on the same mountain ridge, an 18-year-old student Michael Uyad of Gueday, Besao was mercilessly murdered by operating troops of the same 54 th IB. Also, that same year, on March 18, another organic unit of the 54th IB illegally arrested, detained, and tortured two menfolk from Baclingayan, Tubo, Abra who were en route to Mainit, Bontoc to deliver carabaos as ordered by their counterpart in Mainit. Even their carabaos were not spared by the heartless fascist army troops who butchered them.<br><br>
The fascist AFP officers and troops in pursuit of Oplan Bantay Laya 2 are desperate to produce military victories and please their commanding generals including their fake commander-in-chief in their vain attempt to crush the NPA and revolutionary mass movement. Indeed, by intensifying militarization and state terrorism, it is wreaking havoc and severe suffering, most particularly on the poor peasant families and national minorities. The military troops have no compunction whatsoever even if they run roughshod over the rights of school children.<br><br>
The ongoing massive military operations and aerial bombings along boundary areas of Quirino-Tubo-Besao-Sagada-Bontoc and Sadanga have resulted in the disruption of the peasants' economic activities. Ripe palay in all these affected areas that are ready for harvest have been left to rot. Cows and carabaos being pastured in communal pasturelands have been left unattended. Pocket miners at Matuwe, Gueday, Besao; Chakep and Maatung both at Mainit, Bontoc have been forced to abandon their communal tunnels. Several irrigation canal needing immediate repairs have been left unattended.<br><br>
Military troops have saturated several mountain ridges in the area, sowing fear among the peasants and their children and preventing them from their usual activities such as firewood gathering, swidden farming and travel. It is tantamount to the denial of the rights of the tribal people to the full use, access and development of their ancestral lands and to livelihood.<br><br>
In utter disregard and gross violation of international humanitarian laws and CARHRIHL, the 54th IB turned the elementary school building in Sitio Dandanac, Tamboan, Besao as their virtual barracks causing an indefinite suspension of classes. Meanwhile, hundreds of high school students who hike from their villages to their schools for long hours have been forced to drop their classes due to fear of encountering military troops or being abducted or killed by the AFP. There are yet unreported violations of the democratic rights of the people of these affected areas.<br><br>
The Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front (CPDF) joins the villagefolk of Tubo and Sagada in condemning in the strongest words possible the AFP's inhumanity, brutality and total disregard of the children's democratic rights and welfare. No amount of explanation by the AFP can justify the cruelty they are inflicting on these school children. No amount of excuses, not even the AFP's asinine propaganda or the Arroyo regime's bloodthirsty counter-insurgency campaign, can justify the gruesome oppression of these school children in particular and the indigenous peoples in general.<br><br>
The Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front (CPDF), together with the peoples of Mountain Province and Abra, demand the immediate and unconditional release of these innocent children to their parents and people. The units of the NPA shall make certain that those who committed these acts of fascism and terrorism will be punished!<br>
The ever-widening and ever-deepening revolutionary mass bases among the indigenous peoples are not and will not be cowed into submission by Oplan Bantay Laya 2. Instead, they see desperation and sure defeat for the fascist Arroyo regime's "end-game strategy" against the revolutionary movement. They see the definite downfall of this illegal, criminal, fake, despicable and anti-people Arroyo regime that aggravates national oppression against the children and peoples of the Cordillera.<br><br>
Now, more than ever, the peasant and tribal villages of the Cordillera unite in intensifying the armed revolution and strengthening their true army – the New People's Army – to punish the criminal troops of the AFP for their crimes against the people and children!<br>
Along with the rest of the Filipino masses, the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera shall make use of their spears and shields in advancing the protracted people's war towards a genuine free and humane society that defends the peoples' and children's democratic rights and welfare against oppression, exploitation and injustice!<br>
FETAD!<br>
<strong>Release the abducted innocent schoolchildren of Kili, Tubo, Abra!<br>
Pull out all military troops in the Abra-Mountain Province-Ilocos Sur boundaries!<br>
Punish the criminal AFP for its crimes against the peoples and children of the Cordillera!<br>
Fight fascism and state terrorism with people's war!</strong>$$$$$