MILF vows neutrality in May polls in Mindanao (tags)
The EPCC NEWS gathered from news sources from Cotabato City that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has reiterated its apolitical stand in the May 10 elections, warning that violators will be dealt with under its own judicial system. “So far, there is no report of violation from the MILF hierarchy and its armed forces regarding the directive,” MILF peace negotiator Ali “Jun” Mantawil told the Inquirer in a roundtable discussion with Inquirer Mindanao on Saturday.
Philippine Army chief sees ‘meltdown’ NPA by June (tags)
The EPCC NEWS today learned that the military on Monday said it has been well on track to defeating the communist insurgency within 2010, with the string of successes against the New People's Army across the country, causing the "meltdown" of rebel forces. According to the EPCC, in a speech to the army camp in Davao province in Mindanao, Army Lt. General Delfin Bangit, Philippine Army chief, said the military has been able to deal significant blows against the NPA, trimming down Asia's longest-running Maoist insurgency "into smaller formations." Bangit was in Davao del Norte Monday to personally thank and reward soldiers for "back-to-back victories" against the NPA in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces in a week.
Revolutionary Forces says more guerrilla fronts needed to win in the Philippines (tags)
The PESANTE NEWS learned today through news sources that the revolutionary group--the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said in a statement marking its 41st founding anniversary today that it needed to increase the number of its guerrilla fronts and combatants if it were to win its protracted war against the government. The CPP said the guerrilla fronts of its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), should grow “from around 120 to 180 in order to cover the rural congressional districts and gain the ability to deploy armed city partisan units in the urban congressional districts.”
Reform: The Making of a Philippine Presidential Campaign (tags)
There is real possibility for a significant leap in the reform process in the Philippines after the 2010 elections. If, as seems likely at this time, Noynoy Aquino wins the presidency, a number of converging developments could produce the conditions necessary for change. The first is Noynoy himself, who has successfully embodied the political legacy of his mother Cory, and his father Ninoy. This, in turn, has introduced a new dimension of enthusiastic voluntarism to the election campaign. Finally, the people running Noynoy’s campaign constitute the leading core of an enlarged reform constituency.
Activist Doctor killed in Mindanao (tags)
Epidemiologist Dr. Rogelio Peñera was killed because of his activism, his colleagues insisted on Saturday. Dr. Jonathan Placido, chair of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), said Peñera had rallied people in the sector against issues that threatened their welfare and the delivery of health services to the poor. Peñera was driving home with his daughter on Wednesday night when he was ambushed near his home in Cabantian village here. He died from multiple bullet wounds in the head and body, while his daughter suffered minor injuries.
AJLPP CONDEMNS ARRO ON EDSA 1mes (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) vehemently condemns President Arroyo’s assertions that there should not be anymore EDSA. Referring to the People’s Revolt against dictator Marcos in 1986. Mrs. Arroyo abhorred another EDSA after she herself was propelled into power by another EDSA in 2001 against former President Joseph Estrada For the AJLPP based in the United States, “ For tyrant afraid of people’s power that placed she in power and now threatens her with another uprising, Mrs. Arroyo’s statement is a proof of her alienation to the public.”
AJLPP DISPUTES ARROYO'S STAND ON EDSA UPRISING (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines disputes President Arroyo;s assertions that there should not be anymore EDSA. Referring to the People’s Revolt against dictator Marcos in 1986, Arroyo abhorred another EDSA after she herself was propelled into power by another EDSA in 2001 againt former President Joseph Estrada
The commanding general of the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Lt. Gen. Pedro Inserto, says that “the Palparan solution” failed. The so-called solution is named after the notorious Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr., now retired. In all his assignments,
Highlights of the US State Visit of President Arroyo of the Philippines (tags)
If we have to assess the highlights of the 10-day state visit of President Macapagal-Arroyo to the United States, we can sum it up in several points. Besides securing $ 700 million loans, talking with US investors and visiting her fellow Filipino psychopaths, one important agenda of PGMA in her visit are the “ getting to know you” meetings with the US Democratic Party presumptive presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain. Highlights of the US State Visit of President Arroyo of the Philippines
AJLLP Joins the Call for the Removal of AFP Chief and NSA Chief in the Philippines (tags)
he Alliance- Philippines (AJLPP)-USA supports the call of -- party list group Bayan Muna (People First) and other pro-people groups that demanded the sacking of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr., and the prosecution of retired major general Jovito Palparan, now a Department of Justice security adviser for the political killings in the country.
2 Filipino military rebel officers ‘mentally’ tortured, wives claim (tags)
The wives of two Filipino military rebel junior officers have claimed their husbands are being “mentally tortured” by the Army since their capture six months ago. Philippine Army 1st Lt. Sonny Sarmiento and 2nd Lt. Aldrin Baldonado have been kept in “bartolina” (solitary confinement) at the maximum-security compound of the Intelligence Security Group (ISG) at Fort Bonifacio since July 27, their wives said. They said the two officers were not being adequately fed, and deprived of reading materials and personal grooming items like combs.
Bayan Muna leader Killed in Sorsogon, Bicol Region, Philippines (tags)
Another BAYAN MUNA activist was killed yesterday morning—the third in Sorsogon province in the Bicol Region, Southern Luzon in two weeks—and the manner of his death was particularly brutal. Francisco Bantog, provincial chair of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna in Sorsogon, was shot 20 times by yet unidentified men in Barangay Dancalan in Donsol town, news sources in Bicol reported.
Pesante-USA Condems Killing of Youth leader in Cagayan (tags)
Cagayan, the northernmost province of Luzon has become a valley of death for activists as a 19-year-old youth leader became the third militant in a month to be killed in the province. Sangguniang Kabataan chair Nelson Asocena, a member of the youth group Anakbayan and the peasant group Kagimungan, was shot dead in an attack allegedly by six men in military uniform on Dec. 13 in Rizal, Cagayan. Pesante-USA vehemntly condemn the fascist terror Kiling. Asocena was the third militant leader to be killed in Cagayan within a month and the 802nd in the Philippines since 2001, based on records of the human rights group Karapatan. More than 800 activist, leaders, and ordinary members of people's organizations and their familes had been killed since 2001 when Arroyo assumed presidency in the Philippines.
December 17 Mass Rally in Manila:Unresolved issues justify protest, say bishops (tags)
AJLPP -USA and Philippine news sources reported today that the December 17 prayer rally in Manila will push through. AN “escalation of crises” that the leaders of the country’s Roman Catholic Church can no longer take sitting down prompted the Church to spearhead tomorrow’s planned huge prayer rally at Manila’s Rizal Park. News reports also confirmed that top officials of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines yesterday rebuffed calls from administration stalwarts for them to abandon the rally at the Quirino Grandstand in the wake of the decision by Ms Arroyo’s allies to scrap plans to convene a constituent assembly. The CBCP secretary general, Msgr. Juanito Figura, said the CBCP could no longer ignore the escalating problems facing the country, including the questions surrounding President Macapagal-Arroyo’s disputed victory in the 2004 elections. Figura specifically cited the “Garci” tapes, which set off the election controversy, the P728-million fertilizer fund scam and the so-called Mayuga report on the alleged involvement of military officials in election fraud as among the issues unresolved to this day. “The Church cannot play blind, deaf and mute to the sufferings that these issues have brought,” Figura said in a press conference.
US-Arroyo Regime Beat a Retreat : Stop Con-ass now (tags)
President Macapagal-Arroyo, sensing grave political fall-out from her manuverings, had instructed her political affairs adviser Gabriel Claudio on Friday to “order” the lawmakers allied with her to drop the constituent assembly (Con-ass) as a means of changing the Constitution, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said yesterday.
GRP sGRP Seeks new deadline in talks with MILF (tags)
News sources in Mindanao reported today that the Philippine government failed twice to meet a self-imposed deadline to submit a new proposal to break a deadlock in peace talks with the Moro islamic Liberation Front (MILF) over territory, increasing anxiety over when the talks would resume.
Update on the AFP Military Rebels (tags)
For the people’s democratic forces, it is just plain killings, disappearances or torture in jail. For military rebels, it’s a different kind of torture. News sources revealed today that the combination of “solitary confinement, intrigues, unsolicited acts of kindness, and even continuous blaring of [heavy] metal music” has taken a toll on the detained Magdalo rebel soldiers, according to the former legal counsel of one of them.
Norway rules out resumption of talks (tags)
Norway rules out resumption of talks PEACE talks broker Norway said it saw no chance of a rapid resumption of the stalled peace talks between the Philippine government and the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF). “I don’t see the prospect of talks resuming in the near future,” Tore Hattrem, director general of the section of peace and reconciliation at the Norwegian foreign ministry, told AFP after four days of consultations with the NDF.
Maguindanao gov withdraws militiamen from 5 town (tags)
Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan has ordered militiamen involved in clashes with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels to stand down and pull out, a Malacañang official said yesterday. Jesus Dureza, national security adviser, said the order has brought back calm to Shariff Aguak and four other towns affected by the clashes that started on June 28. More than 20,000 people were displaced because of the skirmishes, which civilian officials said killed at least seven members of the Civilian Volunteers’ Organization (CVO) and three MILF rebels.
Stop the war, Maguindanao folk cry (tags)
Pesante-USA/AJLPP joins the people of Mindanao in their urgent call to stop the US-Arroyo Regime's war against the people. “They are suffering and they want the fighting stopped,” Ruby Sahali, social welfare secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said of the more than 4,000 families displaced by fighting between militiamen and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Maguindanao.The evacuees came from the towns of Shariff Aguak, where the hostilities started last week, and from Mamasapano, Datu Piang, Datu Unsay, Datu Saudi, Ampatuan, Sultan sa Barongis and SK Pendatun towns, where it spread.
2 leftists killed in wake (tags)
The blood of leftist militants just won’t stop flowing. A week after men on a motorcycle gunned down former New People’s Army leader Sotero Llamas in Albay province, a lone assassin wearing a bonnet over his head shot dead a Bayan Muna member and a leader of a farmers’ group during a wake on Sunday night here. Bayan Muna’s David Costuna, 48, and Arcadio Macale, 60, president of the local Barangay Agrarian Reform Council, were the 19th and 20th militants murdered around the country in the past two months. Their deaths brought to 228 the total number of activists assassinated since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office in 2001, according to an Inquirer tally.
PHILIPPINES: NPA carnage in Bukidnon bared (tags)
THE military has unearthed more atrocities committed by New People’s Army rebels in the countryside, the latest of which were the mass execution of rebels and civilians alike, the recruitment of child warriors and the abduction and rape of a teenager by a rebel commander.