SURRENDER OF 150 NPA GUERRILLAS IN RIZAL, A BIG FAKE PHOTO-OP BY GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesperson
Communist Party of the Philippines
November 17, 2002

The chief puppet Macapagal-Arroyo's photo-ops in Rizal the other day was nothing but a big absurdity and a grand deception. Knowing the puppet Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's voracious appetite for publicity, the AFP and PNP cooked up the supposed surrender of 150 NPA regulars in Rizal. The "event" was covered by the tri-media, with the chief puppet delivering a deceptive speech to boot.

The truth is that only a handful of what were made out to be NPA surrenderees were former guerrillas-and they had long left the movement. According to the Narciso Antaso Aramil Command (NAAC) of Rizal, most of the 150 "surrenderees" were ordinary folk who were either paid or coerced to participate in the idiot-sponsored "grand event." They are the same people being forced and paid now and then to join military- and police-sponsored "rallies" against the CPP-NPA-NDFP. Some of them were not even informed about this fake surrender scheme. Most of those who were mobilized by the AFP and PNP in to make up the so-called 150 rebel returnees were promised a share of the money expected as payment for posing as NPA surrenderees.

The woman referred to as "Ka Lorena" is not a high official of the NPA in Rizal, as claimed by the AFP and PNP. She is Rosalinda Cocoy, 23, married with one child and a resident of Barangay Puray, Montalban, Rizal. She was with the NPA for two months before she was granted a leave to seek treatment for a heart ailment. She never reported back, however, and eventually married and lived in their barrio.

On August 22, Lorena was arrested by the military when a firefight took place in their barrio between the NPA and AFP and remains in military custody. She has been forced to point out suspected NPA forces and members of the NPA mass base. Worst of all, she has been held in a camp in San Isidro, Antipolo City and has been turned into a sex slave of several military officials. The hapless woman, a victim of innumerable human rights violations at the hands of the military, has suddenly become a fake NPA surrenderee.

We ask everyone who cares for human rights, who struggles to advance the welfare of women and who advocates objective, authentic and courageous media reporting, to look into this gross violation of human rights, undertake the necessary measures to bring it to public light and seek justice for Lorena. This is but one example of the widespread, systematic and heinous violation of human rights and International Humanitarian Law by the regime. ###

Back to top