“We are serious and determined to protect our patrimony, sovereignty, and the general welfare and interests of the people and the environment. We will use the full potential of the revolutionary movement to carry out these just policies,” said Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, spokesman for the National Democratic Front (NDF)-Mindanao.
The NDF, which has an ongoing peace negotiation with the government to end a 40-year old communist insurgency, is the political arm of the communist movement in the Philippines.
Communist rebels recently attacked a foreign mining company in Surigao del Norte and burned down its heavy equipment worth P500 million.
The rebels would carry out punitive actions against those that “destroy the environment, exploit the workers and drive away indigenous people from their ancestral lands,” sa Ka Oris in a statement sent out to Mindanao-based media.
PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO.74, August 15-21, 2011
MORE WINDOWS FOR PEACE TALKS: Dutere with co-anchor lawyer Geraldine Chiu at the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa program. photo by PARE PAREHO LANG
by ROGER M. BALANZA
Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday called on the government to open more windows for talking peace with all rebels groups, as fighting erupted anew in Datu Piang and Maguindanao in Centeral Mindanao between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its break-away group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) led by Amelil Ombra Kato. The fighting displaced about 3,000 famiies.
Duterte earlier praised President Aquino for his back-door meeting with MILF leaders in Tokyo in a bid to find lasting peace in Mindanao. He said however that President Aquino should also sit down with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), another Moro rebel group in Mindanao, led by Nur Misuari. The MNLF has inked a peace pact with the government but is accusing the government of failing to implement many provisions of the 1996 pact. To complete the peace efforts, Duterte suggested that President Aquino also sit down in negotiation with all other groups fighting the government.
Duterte’s formula for peace is government talking with a rainbow of ideologs and secessionists including bandits, that form a lethal brew that makes Mindanao continuously on edge. These brew includes Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Al Haj Murad of the Moro Islamic National Liberation (MILF), Joma Sison of the communist National Democratic Front (NDF), renegade Moro rebel leaders Ameril Umbra Kato and Kumander Bravo of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
In the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN, Duterte said an all-out war against the Moro rebels would be futile as a means to achieve peace in Mindanao.
We can talk forever, he said, adding government in an all-out war is not the solution to the problem.
The government should not wage war against its people, he said, adding that, besides that, the government “cannot kill all” the Muslims in Mindanao.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is contemplating on pushing a localized peace initiative between the government and the communist rebels to realize a lasting peace in the city particularly in the far-flung barangays.
If this happens, the mayor would be talking to top communist leaders including Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao, the head of the New People’s Army First Pulang Bagani Command, which operates in the hinterlands of the city, a Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, the Southern Mindanao spokesman of the National Democratic Front.
The mayor bared this as she spoke to reporters after sending off on Friday last week the 300 members of the peace and development teams of the 84th and 69 Infantry Battalions, respectively to the barangays of Toril, Tugbok and Marilog Districts, this city.
She said the current situation needs an effective formula to solve the insurgency problem without necessarily resorting to armed confrontation between the rebels and the soldiers.
Carpio pointed out that all stakeholders aspire for a lasting peace and she will support all efforts towards this direction.
“It is laudable if we find a formula of realizing peace without resorting to combat operations,” she said.
The mayor said she will try to reach out to the rebels and urge them to talk peace.
She said the military also expressed openness to the local peace initiatives.
“The military officers are very interested. As a civilian, I am willing to mediate. We have to wait for the willingness of the rebels. We can do a localized peace initiative. We are all Filipinos,” she said.
Major General Jorge Sego via, commander of the 10th Infantry Division based in Camp Felix Apolinario, Panacan here said Mayor Carpio has strongly influenced their community-reach-out programs in the region when she emphasized focusing on community development rather than combat operations.
He said the military listens and believes in the wisdom of local officials.
“There is no reason for us not to follow that lead,” Segovia said.
He said as a legitimate armed force, the soldiers are still armed.
Segovia explained the weapons will only be used by soldiers to defend themselves and the community.
“We also know how to use reasonable force, using it only when necessary,” he said.
When the smoke of a fierce encounter between government troopers and communist rebels in Davao del Sur cleared, the body of a young boy peppered with Armalite fire was found dead in the battle site.
Only 17 years old, Tonelic Bantawan might as well be the poster boy of how the communist New People’s Army uses child warriors in blatant violation of international conventions on the protection of children and use of minors in armed ideological conflicts.
The Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Partylist in Mindanao reiterated its call for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the unabated use by local insurgent groups of innocent children conscripted into their cause in the guise of freedom fighters.
CHR Chair Leila de Lima must order an en banc investigation into the local Maoist communist terrorists’ continued use of “child terrorists” as it clearly violates the Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Law, said ANAD-Mindanao.
ANAD-Mindanao accused the Mindanao Commission or Komisyon Mindanao (KOMMID) of the Maoist CPP-NPA-NDF of employing children particularly from the indigenous cultural communities as red fighters.
Ronelic Bantawan alias Dondon of Upper Sitio Blasan, Brgy. Malawanit, Magsaysay town in Davao del Sur was killed in an encounter with Army troops last September 3 few kilometers from their residence.
The young boy was later found to have been recruited into Guerilla Front 76, Far South Mindanao Region of the CPP-NPA-NDF barely three months before the encounter.
William Bantawan told police investigators that, “My brother is just 17 years old and our family was so worried because we haven’t seen him for the past three months.”
ANAD’s investigation showed that in Luzon alone a total of 11 minors whose ages ranged from 18 to 20 years old recruited by the Maoist terrorist NPA were killed during encounters with government security forces. Three child warriors were also arrested and nine others rescued from the communist rebels in a span of eight years from 2000 to 2008.
This excludes those gathered from Mindanao and the Visayas where communist-terrorist insurgency is far more pronounced.
“How many minors are actually in the NPA’s control now? These figures are alarming. This clearly shows the real character of the Maoist communist-terrorists guile and penchant for deceitful recruitment of minors that runs contrary to the international covenants on the protection of children and minors from wars and other forms of conflicts,” said ANAD Partylist Rep. Jun Alcover.
Alcover detailed the extent of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s employment and deployment of children as Maoist “terrorists” in a press conference today, Sept. 24, at the Teresa Cover Court in Sta. Mesa, Manila City.
The venue would have an historic implication and could generate deeper awareness among parents about schools being used as recruitment area by the communist rebels: Teresa Court is a stone throw away from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Sta. Mesa Campus.
Parents of two PUP students recently came out in the open to complain that their minor children – Albert Estrada and Regina Obiso, both first year students of PUP’s College of Communication – who were active members of the Kabataang Makabayan-Charlie del Rosario Chapter in PUP, were duped into joining the NPA in the guise of undergoing exposure last April 4 and 5, respectively.
ANAD is targeting schools in conduct of seminars on the evils of communism to warn students, parents and teachers about the NPA recruitment activities.
The rebels would carry out punitive actions against those that “destroy the environment, exploit the workers and drive away indigenous people from their ancestral lands,” sa Ka Oris in a statement sent out to Mindanao-based media.
THE DURIAN POST 