The Rachelle Mae Palang Command of the New People’s Army Southeast Negros Guerrilla Front (RMPC-NPA) denied claims of the Philippine National Police’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion 7 (PNP-RMFB7) that explosives were recovered in Sitio Carima, Barangay Talalak, Sta. Catalina Negros Oriental.

“Explosives and war materiel found in Santa Catalina is an obvious hoax. Again, they are recycling their broken-record narrative of ‘discovering’ evidence that they themselves have planted,” RMPC-NPA spokesperson Estrella Banagbanag said.

She stressed that the recent fake news is part of the government’s “witch-hunt and counterrevolution, in trying to chase their pipe dream of eviscerating the revolutionary movement by year’s end.”

“The fact is state forces have been hounding Barangay Talalak and nearby hinterland barangays to protect and shove foreign investments and local projects of the ruling class, including the Tamlang Valley ‘zone of peace’ that is marked with blood of the farmers,” the rebel spokesperson added.

She also remarked that after a series of mishaps and mis-encounters, government forces are “desperate for anything at this point to prove that they are ‘winning,’ while they are spreading more than battalion-sized military and police forces in a supposed ‘dismantled’ guerrilla front.”

“The more they add to their list of stupid and heinous crimes and twisted storytelling, the more they compel the people to cling to the armed revolution launched by the NPA as the only hope to end oppression and exploitation,” Banagbanag ended.###