Read in: Pilipino

The desecration of the remains of Justine Baustista by the elements of the 5″ ID is repugnant. It is a violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitrian Law or CAHRIHL. An agreement that seeks to humanize the conduct of the armed conflict in the Philippines. The differences in political ideology does not give those in government blanket authority to violate the remains of a revolutionary, NPA or not. It is arrogant of the men in uniform from the AFP to not even seek the permission of the known relatives of the identified dead body. What men without honor leads the NTF-ELCAC that they will send their men to violate socially accepted morals in the treatment of the remains of the dead, revolutionaries or not. Even wars have rules.

It is according to the wishes of the revolutionary parents of Justine Bautista that she be laid to rest in the area of the people she has pledged to serve, among the masses she so loved. May we remind the 5th ID and the NTF-ELCAC before using the remains of Justine Bautista to demonize the New People’s Army, that her death is a result of a fifty-year old armed conflict. That it is one of the AFP’s intelligence agent that shot and ended the life of this young revolutionary. A fact that cannot be covered by the granduous chain of lies Ivy Lyn Corpin has made possible. Ivy Lyn Corpin is a surrenderee. She is a paid asset that serves no one but herself. Corpin wants to enjoy the good life by cashing-in on the desecration of the remains and alleged lifestory of a fallen ex-comrade. Now the NTF-ELCAC, thru its parrot Corpin, is using the remains of Justine Bautista to villify legal student organizations in the Cagayan Valley region. What coward men will turn their guns and the power of the state against young unarmed civilians.

The cruelty of the Duterte administration personified by the AFP and the PNP is endless. The sixteen extra-judicial killings (EJK) it perpetrated in the Cagayan Valley region lays proof to the utter disregard for the right to life of the Duterte administration and the 5″ ID is its main instrument. All victims of EJKs in the region are either farmers fighting for their right to land or persons advocating the right to land of poor farmers and indigenous peoples. We clearly remember the brutal murder of Randy Malayao who was active in the peace process to end the 50-year armed conflcit in the country.

The 5″ ID just like its commander-in-chief is consistent in its disrepect for the right to the living and the dead. Let us not allow this regime to trample upon the basic right to life of our family, our children and our neighbors. Let us end the greed for power and wealth of Duterte and all his cohorts. Let us resist the all-out-sell-out of our land and natural resources to big foreign businesses that care nothing about environmental consequences to our people’s lives. Let us not allow them to cash in on our health amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The soveign will of the people must prevail.

Rise up and take courage.

Let us unite to hold the Duterte regime accountable for every EJK, illegal arrest and every penny

pocketed by his corrupt minions. Let us fight with all means possible to end impunity and remove

Duterte from power. Struggle for genuine freedom and democracy.

Long live the people of Cagayan Valley. Long live the Filipino masses. ###