Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 2, Number 30 September 1 - 7, 2002 Quezon City, Philippines |
Army
Commander Insists Bayan This
business of labeling progressive groups such as Bayan Muna as “terrorist” is
proving to be dangerous: countless activists have been killed allegedly by
military and paramilitary forces. In Negros, the island’s top Army commander
has linked Bayan to the underground Left – and he cites as proof copies of Ang
Bayan supposedly found in sites of recent armed clashes involving the NPA.
Bayan activists who sense danger in this absurdity, see an imminent crackdown. By
Edgar A. Cadagat and Karl G. Ombion BACOLOD
CITY – Negros Island’s top military commander proved to be the butt of
jokes among radio listeners here when he accused the militant Bayan-Negros as a
subversive organization with links to the outlawed armed Left. Proof he said was
that copies of Ang Bayan (The People) were found in two recent clashes
involving New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas and a rival group. Bayan
leaders were, however, not amused. In
a radio broadcast Aug. 28, Col. Alphonsus Crucero, 303rd brigade
commander, said that Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Negros, had links with
the underground Communist Party of the Philippines and its military component,
the NPA, based on subversive papers Army soldiers seized following a clash in a
hinterland village of a city and another in a town in southern Negros' CHICKS
area. Crucero’s
accusation also came on the heels of an ambush by the NPA in Negros Oriental on
Tuesday. The
Army commander said that aside from Ang Bayan seized were copies of
"Paghimakas" (Struggle), a revolutionary newsletter published by the
CPP in Western Visayas. Crucero
said that the CPP newsletter which by inference carried the name of “Bayan”
proves that the militant group is linked to the underground party. Interviewed
in Radyo Agong's Prangkahanay Ta Program (Let's Be Frank) by broadcaster Sandy
Villano, he challenged Julius Mariveles, Bayan-Negros secretary-general, Julius
Mariveles - a former journalist- to visit the Army headquarters and look over
the evidence of Bayan's link with the CPP-NPA. But
Mariveles who was also placed on the air along with Crucero appeared not amused,
explaining that Ang Bayan was a publication of the CPP and was not in
anyway linked with the militant. (The paper was first published in 1969
following the re-establishment of the CPP while Bayan, a legal alliance of 14
mass organizations, was founded about 16 years later.) The
military commander was referring to two recent armed clashes – the first in
Taysikan Subvillage, Balicotoc Village, Ilog town and the other in Agtao
Subvillage, Tapi Village Kabankalan City, August 26. Sources
said these were chance encounters between the NPA and a rebel faction. No
casualties were reported. Mariveles
chided Crucero for implicating Bayan-Negros in every opportunity he gets and
especially when there are clashes between the NPA and the military. Bandied about "These
issues have been bandied about even when the Marcos dictatorship was in power,
and by the various administrations which followed it and until now,"
Mariveles said. "This became more pronounced when President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo declared all-out war against the mainstream revolutionary
movement and when the United States declared the CPP-NPA as a Foreign Terrorist
Organization." The
Bayan-Negros leader said the military must have a plan up its sleeve: an
imminent crackdown on progressive organizations in Negros. Crucero
countered that Bayan and other militant groups should stop criticizing the
government but Mariveles said it was the people's right to criticize what they
feel should be brought to public attention. It
remained unclear whether Mariveles’s simple explanation was convincing enough
to Crucero. Last
week’s verbal match between the Army commander and the Bayan leader was the
latest in a series of public debates they have had following armed encounters
between the NPA and government troops. Meanwhile,
two ambushes were reportedly staged by the NPA in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental
last week. Killed were Chief Insp. Leopito Gallego, police chief of Vallehermoso
town, and two other policemen. Three other policemen were wounded while two more
went missing. Other
reports described one of the ambushes as a misencounter between police and
military forces. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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