The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Mindoro issued an open letter last week calling on Mindoreños to be on alert after the Philippine National Police’s coordinated mass killings and arrests in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal last March 7 referred to as Bloody Sunday.

The NDF-Mindoro penned the letter a few days after Philippine National Police (PNP) top cop Debold Sinas, mastermind of the Synchronized Enhanced Police ang Military Operation (SEMPO), visited PNP-MIMAROPA headquarters in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.

NDF-Mindoro referred to the arrest of women peasant leader Genalyn Avelino on February 23 in Rizal, Occidental Mindoro as the signal fire of the possible attacks. The NDF chapter also noted the surveillance and harassment of human rights defenders in the island from state forces.

Andal further said: “We remember the series of state-killings during the Oplan Habol Tamaraw masterminded by the butcher Col. Jovito Palparan under the command of Gloria Arroyo.” But today, it is in connivance with judges who manufacture court warrants, she noted.

Andal challenged democracy-loving Mindoreños, saying, “If democratic groups in the island will unite, Mindoreños can thwart the bloody campaign that the regime is set to implement.”

For their part, the NDF-Mindoro vowed to continue fighting for and rally the people to support the national democratic program and establish the people’s democratic government.

Ka Madaay Gasic of the New People’s Army-Mindoro (Lucio de Guzman Command), meanwhile, said in a separate statement that only through armed resistance can the oppressed and exploited Mindoreño masses effectively defend themselves, fight and defeat the armed forces of the terrorist Duterte regime.

The NDF-Mindoro ended the letter with an indignant declaration: “It is just to take up arms and rebel against the tyrannical and butcher US-Duterte regime.”