Akin to troll farms exposed most recently on TikTok, MGen. Marion Sison of the 3rd Infantry Division and his troll boss at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Visayas Command, Lt. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, are spewing lies from the same old fascist reactionary script. Their recycled lines have long been found out by the people.

Revolutionary forces of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are unlike the reactionary forces of the AFP who serve the interests of the ruling class and US imperialism and whose corruption are driven by insatiable greed. Revolutionary forces selflessly serve the interest of the exploited and oppressed masses and are always ready to sacrifice, even their lives, to achieve the people’s aspiration for national liberation and democracy.

Arevalo and Sison’s gaslighting will backfire on them as they incite the people toward armed revolution with their own bloody anti-insurgency campaign amid a severe economic crisis on the island. The people can see through their lies because they have witnessed and experienced the worsening human rights violations perpetrated by butcher soldiers especially in the rural areas.

The former rebels they exhibit to the public are mostly forced surrenders and a few recycled rotten traitors who have blood debts to the people. The CPP-NPA-NDF death toll they brag about are mainly hors de combat and civilians they killed in cold blood.

As always, the AFP is only digging its own and its master’s graves. The people know they are the enemy and the people do not forget.

The people of Negros have not forgotten the virtual martial law imposed by the 303rd Brigade and the 94th Infantry Battalion on the hinterlands of Himamaylan City and parts of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental exactly a year from today. In its desperate pursuit of the NPA, thousands of lives fell victim to fascist measures of the bloodthirsty Philippine Army.

After a botched raid of a makeshift camp of the Mt. Cansermon Command – NPA South Central Negros Front (MCC-NPA) in Sitio Sig-ang, Brgy. Carabalan, Himamaylan City on October 6, 2022, the 303rd Brigade unleashed fake news and disinformation to confuse the public and save face from its colossal failure of thwarting the NPA despite its so-called “full spectrum” superiority.

These lies also served to justify the mindless bombing and strafing of Brgy. Carabalan using howitzer cannons and machine-guns aboard a helicopter and the human rights violations perpetrated by its foot soldiers who indiscriminately open fired near peasant communities, ransacked abandoned houses, stole money and other personal belongings left in homes, slaughtered farmers’ livestock, and threatened and harassed residents they encountered. Roughly 18,000 residents were victims of this martial law situation; left traumatized by state-sponsored atrocities. Many of them were forced to evacuate their homes due to explosions near their residence and communities, while in some areas, people were prohibited from leaving their homes. Anyone who resisted were branded as “NPA supporters.”

Only two armed encounters and an NPA ambush actually took place out of the six skirmishes claimed by then 303rd Bde. commander BGen. Pasaporte. The 3rd ID, then headed by master liar Arevalo, was so desperate in hiding their casualties. The NPA, on the other hand, showed the effectiveness of guerrilla warfare against a superior enemy and that it was far superior on the matter of support from the broad masses.

Infuriated by its loss and embarrassment, the 94th Infantry Battalion brutally murdered Romeo Nanta (Ka Juanito Magbanua) when they captured him at Sitio Medel, still in Brgy. Carabalan. The erstwhile regional spokesperson of the NPA in Negros was ailing from gout and hypertension. He was in no position to fight when he was taken by 94th IB soldiers to a nearby sugarcane field, tortured, and summarily executed despite his status as a hors de combat.

Magbanua’s summary execution was also downplayed by the Philippine Army as an armed encounter. The AFP brazenly twisted these events to make the reactionary forces seem victorious in their false narrative.

A year after the violent overreaction of the reactionary government, Himamaylan City has been subjected to focused military operations that have resulted in even worse human rights violations, including the Fausto family massacre last June 14. Cases of extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests and detention, indiscriminate firing of firearms, forcible evacuation and displacement, forced surrender, threat, harassment and intimidation, physical assault and injury, destruction of property, and illegal search and seizure are rampant in Himamaylan City this year especially in Barangays Carabalan and Buenavista, with no less than 800 victims including children. Elements of the 94th IB also occupy schools and tribal halls of indigenous peoples and encamp near peasant communities.

The situation in Himamaylan City this past year encapsulates the worsening militarization on the island that aggravates the socio-economic crisis suffered by Negrosanons. Already on the final stretch of another hopeless deadline for the 3rd ID to decimate the NPA in Negros, more lies and human rights violations are expected from these fascist pigs. The revolutionary forces, on the other hand, with the unfathomable support of the people, continue to wage armed struggle, launch agrarian revolution and build the mass base and organs of political power on the island.

Despite military claims of a weakened NPA Negros, Red fighters and all revolutionary forces repeatedly disprove the lies of the AFP. They carry on with their selfless mission of fighting for social justice, and national liberation and democracy. Holding dear to their heart Ka Juanito Magbanua’s famous phrase, “Long live the oppressed masses,” and inspired by all revolutionary heroes and martyrs, the NPA in Negros uphold the path of armed struggle as the solution to the long-standing semicolonial and semifeudal exploitation on the island and in the entire country.###