The Nona del Rosario Command (NDRC, NPA-Ifugao) slams the 54th Infantry Battalion of the AFP for propagating lies regarding the existence of sexual abuse amongst the ranks of the red fighters.

In its FB page, the said AFP unit claims that the presence of pregnancy test kits among the medical supplies sequestered from the NPA during the last armed encounter in the mountains of Hungduan, Ifugao is solid ‘proof’ that cadres of the NPA are molesting female guerillas in its ranks.

“This is pure hogwash,” said Wigan Moncontad, NDRC’s spokesperson. “Clearly, this is just another one of AFP’s fruitless attempts to discredit and malign the NPA by circulating lies and inventing ludicrous stories.”

“They must be fooling themselves if they think that anyone would believe this rubbish. The masses are well aware that the NPA strictly adheres to its core tenets of discipline, one of which is to ‘never take advantage of women’,” added Moncontad.

Moncontad speaks of Point No. 7 in the NPA’s ‘Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention,’ also called the 3/8 discipline. This is also reiterated in the NPA’s Military Regulations and the Communist Party’s guidelines on marriage and sexual relations among members.

The CPP and the NPA nevertheless reserve the harshest disciplinary actions for violators of the said guidelines. According to Moncontad, in the event that a red fighter is proven to have raped a woman, either a guerilla or a civilian, it could mean a maximum of expulsion of the perpetrator from both organizations. After which, an appropriate Party organ could decide to sentence the perpetrator to death.

Pregnancy test kits are indeed included in the standard medical supplies for each guerilla unit, according to NDRC. These are however reserved for the use of married guerilla couples.

“After all, we respect and promote the rights of our red fighters to love, marriage, and revolutionary family building. We have married couples inside almost every NPA unit, thus the need for pregnancy tests,” explained Moncontad.

The group also pointed out the logical disconnect between the presence of pregnancy test kits among the NPA’s supplies and the claims of sexual abuse within the same.

“This baffling leap of logic is testament to the 54th IB’s perverse way of thinking. Who sees a pregnancy test kit and immediately thinks of rape, if not a rapist himself?” asked Moncontad.

The group cited the 54th IB’s long list of abuses against women and children, the most recent of which is the rape of a 16-year old girl by a soldier from the 54th IB in Tinoc last 2018. A separate case was also reported In Brgy. Lob-ong, Asipulo the same year wherein another soldier groped a married woman.

In 2013-2014, a succession of abuses by members of the 54th IB were reported. Among these are as follows:

1. A soldier courted a married woman in Liwon, Asipulo resulting to the separation of the couple.

2. A soldier got a married woman pregnant in Pula, Asipulo.

3. Soldiers peed in front of teenage girls in Namal, Asipulo. They also frequently knocked on the door of the boarding house where high school girls stay, causing fear to the students.

4. A soldier was heard to have said “Two hundred lang babae dito, virgin pa! (Girls here just cost 200, and they are virgins, to boot!)” in Namal, Asipulo.

“The AFP would do well to study the revolutionary movement’s guidelines and principles on sexual relations, revolutionary family building, and women’s rights. They sure are in bad need of it,” ended Moncontad.