In their frantic desperation to end by February 2023 the armed struggle here in the Ilocos-Cordillera Region by means of their anti-people focused military operations (FMOs), the fascist forces of the 5th ID ambushed five (5) civilians in Gaang, a forested area near Sitio Sap-al, Barangay Buneg in the municipality of Lacub, Abra last November 27, 2022.

The 5 civilians were hunters from Sitio Buneg Proper, Barangay Buneg. Two of the hunters were wounded; while the three others ran away for safety from the ambush site. A caliber 22 was seized by the fascist soldiers from the hunters.

Right after ambushing the five civilians, the 5th ID proclaimed deceitfully and arrogantly to the bourgeois media that an NPA unit was waylaid by their operating troops at Sitio Sap-al, Brgy. Buneg, Lacub, Abra. To convince the masses to believe their smear publicity, the 5th ID liars depicted a lot of NPA casualties in the ambush that their fascist forces launched against the five hunters.

The Chadli Molintas Command vehemently condemns this criminal act of the fascist AFP forces. This outrageous ambush of civilians is now added to the countless human rights violations committed by the reactionary AFP and PNP forces in order to terrorize the people, stop the people’s opposition against the construction of destructive mines and dams in the ancestral territories and heighten national oppression against the Cordillera people.

Besides the three basic problems of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism that continually victimize the whole Filipino people, including the people of the Cordillera, national oppression is an added problem that aims to crush the unity of the Cordillera people in their struggle to defend their ancestral lands against destructive mining and dam projects and fight for the achievement of genuine self-determination.

The only way to end the three basic problems and national oppression is to advance the people’s war up to final victory to attain national liberation and people’s democracy, and establish a socialist Philippine society.

Join and strengthen the New People’s Army! Advance the people’s war!