A unit of red fighters of the LPC-NPA seized a shotgun, a .45 cal pistol, a .38 cal pistol, and a .357 cal pistols along with bullets after raiding the household of AFP intel asset barangay captain Beatriz Perater in Barangay Malansa, Vallehermoso, Negros Oriental yesterday, February 16, 2022, around 7 pm. Lucio Perater (60 years old), her husband, and Tony Perater (35 years old), their son, both also her fellow assets were killed during the operation after engaging the NPA unit in armed battle.

Barangay captain Perater, along with Lucio and Tony, are notorious agents of the AFP. They were actively involved in promoting militarization and the building of a detachment in the area despite the opposition the people, using the confiscated firearms to threaten and red-tag locals as NPAs. Due to such crimes, the barangay captain was subjected to revolutionary justice and was warned in 2020 to discontinue her aforementioned crimes and involvement with the AFP and NTF-ELCAC. Instead of heeding the sanctions, their crimes persisted, even to the point of letting the military stay in their home during operations sowing fear among the residents in the area.

Pursuant to the process of revolutionary justice, an NPA unit was dispatched to disarm the Peraters to put an end to their armed intimidation of the masses. Lucio and Tony immediately opened fire at the NPA unit igniting a 10-minute exchange of gunfire.

This incident serves as a warning to individuals in Central Negros who are part of the AFP’s network of spies, with firearms used to terrorize civilians to force them to kowtow to the US-Duterte regime’s counterrevolution. It is also a proof of political violence in the area, with politicians using armed goons and the mercenary AFP/PNP to pressure voters. Politicians are urged to surrender their firearms to a nearby Party branch or NPA unit and to respect the authority of the People’s Democratic Government and its policies regarding the campaign season of reactionary elections this 2022, or face the consequences of not doing so.

By now, the AFP, PNP, and the NTF-ELCAC should come to realize that the NPA, under the absolute leadership of the CPP, will persevere to mount tactical offensives and other military actions to defend the masses amid Duterte’s whole-of-nation approach effectively turning all state apparatuses as weapons for oppression. The obvious flaw in their counterinsurgency campaign is now becoming more evident: the more they try to prevent the just cause of the armed revolution, the more it will persist and flourish, overcoming obstacles to establish a society that caters to the needs of the majority. ###