CPP dismisses AFP reports of NPA killed in Negros as "psywar hogwash"*
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
June 23, 2011
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today dismissed claims by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that six Red fighters of the New People's Army (NPA) were killed in encounters with the military in Pamplona, Negros Oriental last Saturday.
"These reports are pure psywar hogwash," said the CPP. According to the CPP, these reports were issued by Col. Jonas Sumagaysay of the 3rd Infantry Division "who is notorious for churning out one lie after another in the military's desperation to cover up both its losses in the battlefield and failure to win the people's support."
"Aside from citing imaginary 'informants' within the revolutionary movement as his so-called sources," said the CPP, "he is unable to produce even one body of a fallen NPA fighter."
"In Negros, the AFP's victories over the people's revolution exist only in Colonel Sumagaysay's delusions," said the CPP. "In reality, the NPA is steadily growing in Negros as hundreds of thousands of peasants suffer mass poverty and hunger due to the drop in prices of export crops, massive land grabbing and dislocation, unemployment, spiralling costs of basic necessities and widespread militarization."
The CPP further cited earlier false claims by Colonel Sumagaysay that five NPA fighters were killed in an encounter last April 24 in Calatrava, Negros Occidental. His claims later turned out to be a complete reversal of the truth. According to local reports, at least four soldiers of the 60th IB were killed in an NPA ambush on April 24. Several other troops were wounded in this gunbattle, with the rest scampering away instead of fighting.
"Colonel Sumagaysay's lies form part of the psywar campaign being carried out by the AFP under Oplan Bayanihan," said the CPP. "Military spokesmen and psywar experts compete with each another in coming up with the most preposterous lies to cover up the AFP's human rights violations and portray its brutal campaigns as peace and development operations."
