The armed state agents’ indiscriminate arrests of civilians arbitrarily accused as enemies of the US-Duterte regime is an act of blatant cowardice. The paper tiger fears the revolution so much so that it sees ghosts of the Red Army in every path, school, church, barrio and urban centers. Since January of this year, the AFP-PNP in Bikol besieged the region with another spate of illegal arrests and detention. In just seven weeks, 15 cases of illegal arrests and one case of illegal detention have been recorded. Most of these occurred in Masbate (seven cases) followed by Camarines Sur (five cases), Sorsogon (four cases), Albay (two cases) and Catanduanes (one case).

Within Duterte’s term from 2016 to 2022, 171 individuals have been illegally arrested, detained and charged with trumped-up cases throughout Bikol. This figure includes three senior citizen and a two-year old child. Sorsogon holds the highest figure with 64 cases of illegal arrests. In one of the incidents, the military ruthlessly arrested a child along with her whole family, when they went to a military detachment after their family member was arbitrarily seized by elements of the 22nd IBPA. Meanwhile, in Masbate where illegal arrest cases reached 51 incidents, the AFP-PNP did not recognize and respect the rights of the families of individuals they brand as members and cadres of the NPA by arbitrarily arresting and accusing them of trumped-up charges.

Most victims of political arrests by the AFP-PNP in Bikol were falsely strutted as members of the New People’s Army. One of the most recent cases is the arrest of Maricel Trilles Morilla, a civilian, because of her alleged involvement in an incident which killed four elements of 31st IBPA in Brgy. Banquerohan, Legazpi City, Albay last 2020. Unbeknownst to her, she was implicated in the said crime and was subsequently arrested last January 20, 2022.

Like a mad dog on its deathbed, the fascist US-Duterte regime shall surely exhaust all his power through his murderous instruments NTF-ELCAC and Joint Task Force Bicolandia to arrest and wreak havoc in the region. He will be indiscriminate and inconsiderate of people’s rights in the name of erasing the CPP-NPA-NDF in Bikol and the whole country.

NDF-Bikol calls on all the people to be always vigilant and further strengthen the watch on human rights. Do not allow the police to just seize people up, accuse them of absurd crimes and imprison them without basis and due process. If the majority dares to uprise and defend, no prison can contain the innumerable force of those who fight for their rights. There is no force greater than the mass movement and the revolutionary movement.