The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the strongest terms, for the killing of two senior citizens in Cawayan, Masbate yesterday (February 5), then publicly claiming the two were fighters of the New People’s Army who were killed in an encounter.

In fact, there was no encounter. According to reports by residents and the local NPA unit, Pedro Regala, 78 years old, and Florencia Regala, 67, civilian residents of Barangay Toboran, both infirm and incapable of defending themselves, were forcibly taken from their home by armed soldiers belonging to the 2nd Infantry Battalion, accompanied by local paramilitary forces. They were brought to a secluded area and shot at repeatedly and mercilessly.

The AFP soldiers then proceeded to dress the dead bodies of the Regalas with ammunition pouch and other paraphernalia to make it appear that they were NPA fighters. They were then presented to the media as “communist terrorists.”

Some local elements of the AFP who could not stomach the crime reported to the NPA that the perpetrators of the murder of the Regalas were high on drugs. It is widely known in the area that local military and NTF-Elcac officers in Masbate are in cahoots with local druglord Edwin Du, and are in the take of the local drug trade.

Are these drug-crazed and power-drunk fascist troops of the AFP who terrorize people and unleash barefaced violence against the peasant masses, the “professional soldiers” whom Sec. Gilbert Teodoro and Gen. Romeo Brawner are so proud of?

The CPP joins the people and revolutionary forces of Masbate in demanding justice for the Regalas. The local NPA unit, the Jose Rapsing Command, is determined to attain justice by punishing the soldiers behind the killing.

The killing of the Regalas is just the latest of a spate of killings being perpetrated by the AFP across the country in their psywar campaign to make it appear that the NPA is “losing the war.” However, by carrying out this relentless state terrorist drive against civilians, the Marcos regime is succeeding only in further enraging the people and rousing them to join the revolutionary armed struggle.

In the different provinces of the country, more and more people, especially the youth, are volunteering to join the New People’s Army as a way of fighting back and defending themselves and their communities against the fascist terrorism of the AFP, and to defend their land and livelihood from the aggressive entry of plunderous foreign big capitalists and their local partners.