The Cordillera People's Democratic Front (CPDF) commends the Agustin Begnalen Command--NPA Abra for defeating the recent military operations of the 41st IB in the small scale mining and peasant communities of Lacub, Abra. The military operation was launched immediately after AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Alexander Yano visited the 503rd Infantry Brigade headquarters in Lagangilang, Abra last December 12, 2008. On the morning of December 16, 2008 a firefight ensued between a small NPA platoon that engaged in battle a numerically superior AFP force. Two AFP troopers were killed and another was wounded while there was no NPA casualty.
On December 18, 2008, another unit of the 41st IB hastily abandoned its position for fear of being attacked by a maneuvering NPA platoon. To cover their retreat, the soldiers detained and used as human shields seven civilians from the nearby community. They also burned the pine forest to keep the NPA force at bay. The CPDF strongly condemns this cowardly and mindless abuse of the human rights and ancestral lands of the people.
As with previous military operations, this operation seriously disrupted economic activities, spread fear and panic, and damaged property. Harvested rice was abandoned in the field. Several small-scale miners' shacks were nearly hit by mortar shells. Civilians on their way to their fields were accosted and harassed.
The 41st IB has the gall to claim that its recent operation was launched upon the request of the people who wanted protection from the NPA. This shameless lie is brought to the fore by the abusive conduct of its operating troops. If officers of the 41st IB and the AFP as a whole think that the numerous human rights violations they commit, and the huge damages to property and ancestral lands and resources that they inflict are their means of "protecting" the people, then they should have their brains checked. Only imbeciles like them will justify wickedness as service to the people.
Whom does the 41st IB serve in Abra? The 41st IB established its headquarters in Bakiro, Baay-Licuan to be closer to and better protect the exploration sites of Pacific-Olympus-AMIC mining project in Mt. Capcapo and Mt. Patoc. The entry of this large scale mining company is being protested by the people to assert and protect their rights to their ancestral lands, resources and livelihood.
The presence of the 41st IB and other AFP units in Abra is reminiscent of the dark period of the US-Marcos dictatorship when the Presidential Guard Battalion was sent to the province to secure the destructive logging operations of the Cellophil Resources Corporation and the Celloluse Resources Corporation.
The CPDF reiterates its call to all patriotic Abrenians and Igorots to unmask the AFP and the PNP and expose them of what they are -- armed escorts of big mining companies that plunder our ancestral lands and resources. The psywar experts of the AFP are expert liars who draw inspiration from their fake Commander-In-Chief in Malacanang. The CPDF calls on all NPA units in the different guerilla fronts in the region and elsewhere in the country to launch sustained tactical offensives in the coming days as contribution to speeding the inevitable downfall of the brutal and much despised US-Arroyo regime and punish it for its numerous crimes against the people.
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