English

New RSOT drive a total failure, military atrocities widespread

Efren Martires Command
New People's Army - Eastern Visayas
September 02, 2004

The NPA is so effective in outfighting the AFP, and the people are so outraged at human rights atrocities in the course of military operations, that 8th Infantry Division civil relations chief Maj. Neneveigh Alcovindas had nothing much to say in defending their counterrevolutionary campaign yesterday on Radyo Diwa. Not a single NPA fighter has been killed despite relentless military operations, characterized by the use of "reengineered" special operations teams or RSOT,in the three Samar provinces from May-August 2004. On the other hand, as many as 24 Army soldiers have been killed in action and many more wounded in action during this period. The following is a list of engagements since May between the NPA and the AFP in the Samar provinces:

May 5. Brgy. Palanit, San Isidro, Northern Samar. Four Red fighters kill six to eight soldiers when more than 40 elements of the 20th IB attack an NPA tactical base.
June 4. Amantacop, Borongan, Eastern Samar. Red fighters ambush a platoon of the 14th IB and kill two soldiers and wound another.
June 12. A barrio in Maslog, Eastern Samar. An undersized NPA platoon is attacked by 14th IB elements and Scout Rangers but retreats unscathed. Instead, a soldier is killed and another seriously wounded.
June 16. A barrio in Maslog. Red fighters kill five soldiers and wound two more after elements of the 14th and 63rd IB raid the camp of an NPA squad.
July 4. A barrio in Dolores, Eastern Samar. An NPA squad is raided by more than 40 soldiers of the 14th and 63rd IB but retreats unharmed. The commanding officer of the soldiers is killed when two units of the military have a misencounter.
July 6. Brgy. Makatingog, Calbayog City, W. Samar. Red fighters snipe a unit of the 20th IB and kill two soldiers and wound many others.
July 11. Brgy. Cagdao, Silvino Lobos, N. Samar. Red fighters counter an enemy raid and kill two soldiers and wound others from the 63rd IB.
August 2. Border between Catarman, N. Samar and Calbayog City, W. Samar. Two squads of Red fighters retreat with none killed or wounded, while three soldiers are killed and five more seriously wounded after 80 troopers of the 20th IB attack an NPA camp.

By waging the protracted people's war, the NPA can frustrate the enemy's war of quick decision. The NPA is conscious of preserving its forces and accumulating strength over a long period through widespread and intensive guerrilla warfare. The people support the NPA for carrying out the agrarian revolution and empowering them by building the people's democratic government in the countryside. In many of the abovementioned engagements, the peasants themselves alerted the NPA to the presence of enemy units and provided food and safe havens to the Red fighters. The AFP is fighting an enemy it cannot see nor grasp and its offensives merely punch the air.

While inutile against the NPA, the 8th ID troopers cowardly vent their impotence by committing numerous atrocities against helpless civilians. These cases are being consolidated for the filing of charges before the GRP-NDFP Joint Monitoring Committee against the violators of human rights and international humanitarian law. Maj. Alcovindas superficially says that human rights atrocities are committed only by a few "bad eggs" in the AFP and that the military can rid itself of them. On the contrary, the Arroyo government deliberately allows military abuses to go unchecked and actually rewards notorious butchers like Gen. Jovito Palparan, recently named Philippine Army chief despite his bloody record in Mindoro, and 19th IB commander Lt. Col. Oscar Lactao, who got a study leave to the US to work for his promotion last year despite the massacre by his troops of nine captured Red fighters and civilians in Kananga, Leyte.

The RSOT, formulated by the AFP in 2001, is the third in the recycled series of the Special Operations Teams first launched by the fascist state against the revolutionary movement in the 1990s. It is characterized by the use of large numbers of troops (oversized platoons or companies) who take turns in sustained military operations of six months to one year in selected areas deemed by the AFP to be revolutionary strongholds. They also set up intelligence networks to spy on the NPA, as well as carry out civil-military operations like literacy classes and medical and dental missions, which are actually wrecking operations to dupe the people and sabotage their organized unity.#

For confirmation, contact:
Roy Santos, NDF-EV Media Liaison Officer
Cellphone No. 0918-3112138

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