The November 16 “encounter” in Sityo Puting Bato, Bgy. Washington, Escalante City is nothing but a big fat lie.  Army officials led by Col. Benedict Arevalo of the 303rd Brigade and the 79th Infantry Battalion led by Jesson Agaton are just spinning lies about this made-up encounter between their fascist troops and the NPA. No operative or fighter of the New People’s Army Roselyn Jean Pelle Command was in the area. The NPA did not lose any firearms. We did not incur any casualties because no encounter ever took place.

Civilians say that the fascist troopers were already in the area as early as 4:00 in the morning and loitered near their homes. The truth is, these soldiers were shooting at their own shadow, at a bamboo grove where they say the NPAs were at.  Witnesses say that there were only soldiers because there was no return fire for the whole five minutes of the made-up “encounter.”  After this fabricated gun battle, the army quickly announced that firearms were recovered and the NPA suffered two deaths.  These fascist soldiers know no honor that they can only invent battles and create one lie after another. They were already in position at 4:00 am but the “gun battle” happened only at 10:00 am?

The citizens of Barangay Washington already successfully petitioned against the presence of the 303rd CMO and counter-insurgency “Peace and Development Team” composed of the 62nd IB under the command of Lt.Col. Castro in 2017. But now the new unit composed of the 79th IB is also involved in harassment of civilians that they allege to be NPA suporters. Likewise with the Sagay 9 massacre, they try so hard to make the people believe that the NPA was behind the killing but nobody believes their lies. Now thay want to harass and tag the people of Puting Bato as NPA supporters. This only shows the desperation of the miilitary, that they can only invent so many tall tales.  It is because they cannot stop the people from joining the revolutionary cause. Their fascist actions only teach the people to fight back.  Makibaka, huwag matakot!