To meddle in the electoral race the US-Arroyo regime once again let loose its most rabid attack dog, retired AFP Gen. Jovito “The Butcher” Palparan, ruthless architect of political killings in the country, and his band of killers-for-hire. Jovito Palparan is sowing his brand of terror in Mindanao to help quell the popular protest movement in Mindanao cities and to prevent the progressive local, national and partylist candidates from winning.

With so much at stake for the US-Arroyo regime and the ruling class in the forthcoming national elections, retired Gen. Palparan is operating practically in all provinces and cities in Mindanao, and most aggressively in the cities of Davao and Surigao. As in the height of the protest movement calling for the ouster of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Palparan’s presence in Mindanao is just one among the many desperate moves of the Arroyo government to perpetuate itself in power.

Together with Congressman Jun Alcover, a rabid anti-communist, Palparan is employed no less by GMA lackeys such as House Speaker Prospero Nograles in Davao City and drug lord Congressman Romarate in Surigao del Norte. Nograles and Romarate are bankrolling the operations of Alcover and Palparan’s “Partylist” organizations cum ‘private armies’ –ANAD and BANTAY.

Palparan plays an active role in directing special units and non-organic units of the AFP under the 10th Infantry Division and other AFP forces in Mindanao in carrying-out intelligence operations, which include foremost the effecting of extra-judicial killings. It is a well-known fact that Palparan was at the helm in the orchestration of the series of political murders in Eastern Visayas, Bicol region, Southern Tagalog Region and Central Luzon. It included among its victims political dissenters and staunch critics of the Arroyo government, including media workers, lawyers and the religious.

Despite retiring from the AFP, Palparan still exerts a strong influence within the AFP regarding military special operations and dirty tactics, particularly in areas where politicians are willing to finance their dirty election tactics combined with “counter-insurgency” operations, as in Davao City and in Surigao del Norte.

Palparan and Alcover are responsible for the intensification of red-baiting and other forms of black propaganda intended to vilify the progressive movement in urban areas and the revolutionary movement in the countryside. They are placing under surveillance and attack the politicians whom they suspect of having ties with the revolutionary movement. These war-freak butchers are setting the stage for a violent election period in Mindanao in exchange for blood money and in the name of anti-communist hysteria.

In Davao City, apart from having launched an all-out attack against the progressive movement, Palparan and Alcover are also orchestrating a counter-campaign against Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to boost Nograles’s chances in the mayoralty race. They have maliciously linked Mayor Duterte and the progressive opposition partylists and candidates with the New People’s Army (NPA). Their intent is to isolate the more popular Mayor Duterte and garner the people’s support to the unpopular Malacañang lackey, Nograles.

To their dismay, this tactic has boomeranged and further isolated the Nograles-Palparan-Alcover triad in Davao City, bringing Duterte and the progressive groups closer to the heart of the Davaoeños.

In Surigao del Norte, druglord Congressman Romarate finances the overt and covert operation of both the BANTAY and ANAD partylist groups to bolster his reelection bid. Palparan’s shady troop posing as members of BANTAY and Alcover’s ANAD and other non-organic intelligence group employing renegade and ex-NPA members, function as “private armies” fordDruglord Rumarate. These troops, aside from the 30th IB and para-military forces, have been “escorting” druglord Romarate in his campaign sorties.

The National Democratic Front in Mindanao (NDF-Mindanao) calls upon the general public to be vigilant against butcher Palparan. We further call on the people to deny Gen. Palparan and Alcover any form of support. Let us expose and oppose their terrorist operations in Mindanao. These merciless agents of terror and death of the US-Arroyo regime must be brought to justice. All units of the NPA are enjoined to arrest this ‘butcher’ Palparan and bring him before the People’s Court to answer for the heinous crimes he has committed.

(signed)
Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos
Spokesperson
NDFP-Mindanao