AFP squanders public funds in using helicopters for leaflet-dropping in Aurora
The 7th ID and the Philippine Air Force dropped 1,000 leaflets in Barangay Galintuja, Maria Aurora, Aurora and in Barangay Lub-lub, Alfonso Castañeda, Nueva Vizcaya on March 28 as it launched an “aerial reconnaissance” using a Black Hawk military helicopter. This is similar to the futile tactics of other AFP units in the past to persuade Red fighters to surrender. Leaflets are usually dropped in forests.
Flying a Black Hawk for one hour costs ₱220,000 for fuel and an additional ₱110,000 in refueling equipment per unit. All In all, the AFP spent ₱300 for each pamphlet it distributed.
The military report says the pamphlet contained their call to the people’s army to surrender and join its bogus Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).
They threw over the leaflets in Barangay Galintuja following an encounter between a unit of the New People’s Army (NPA)-Central Luzon with the combined forces of the 84th IB and 91st IB on March 22. The people’s army earlier clarified that claims of NPA suffering casualties are all military lies.
“While repeatedly announcing it will crush the NPA at the end of March, the AFP is repeatedly humiliated in every encounter. Not one of the people’s army was even injured in the encounter that took place in Barangay Galintuja, Aurora on March 22,” said NPA-Central Luzon.
Red fighters said the attacking soldiers suffered at least three casualties. The NPA unit in the said town was conducting a consultation with the peasant masses in relation to failing agricultural production and lack of farmer support of the local government.