NPA hits ‘comic reasons’ of PNP in ambush, AFP lies on escaped Red girl’

SAGADA, Mountain Province – The Leonardo Pacsi Command of the New People’s Army said they were amused by “two comic reasons” of the Philippine National Police and their spokespersons for conducting combat operations in  Barangay Aguid here that resulted to a clash last June 4-5 that resulted to the killing of a cop and wounding of 11 others on the government side.

This, even as the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front assailed a story reportedly peddled by the army and PNP about a 14-year-old girl who allegedly escaped the NPA after being allegedly abused by Red cadres. 

The NPA said the PNP claimed they were “on peacekeeping mission” in Sagada and were responding to reported “extortion activities” of the rebels.

“As they were on peacekeeping mission, read as combat mission, they were fully-armed, which means that they were hunting for their prey and ready for combat. And when they were ambushed by the NPA, they cry out “Sagada is a peace zone,” said Leonardo Pacsi Command-NPA spokesperson Ka Magno Udyaw in a statement.

“So convenient for the PNP, AFP, some government officials and other reactionary elements to drumbeat ‘Sagada is a peace zone’ when in truth, they are the ones violating it. They roam around even in tourist spots in full battle gear. The true meaning of peace is peace based on social justice,” he said. “If it were true that they were responding to “extortion activities” in the area,  why only now?”

Ka Udyaw said a few months ago, extortionists were reported in Sagada, Bontoc and Bauko towns, victimizing small hotel owners, government employees and  students.

He said “no one was captured neither a serious effort to identify these perpetrators despite reports from the victims to the police. Is it because the extortionists have connections with the PNP or AFP? And by doing so denigrates the NPA while making money for themselves. Pure alibis”.

“The PNP troops were on a combat operation hoping to make a score against the NPA, with no mention of what provincial police director Senior Supt. Allen S. Ocden has done a few weeks back threatening to bomb the portals of small-scale miners and making good at confiscating piled lumber of the local residents all over the province.”

This, as Simon Naogsan Sr., spokesperson of the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front branded as “fake news, poor and lousy propaganda a story of a minor allegedly recruited as an NPA red fighter, whose incredible story is being generously and maliciously being peddled by the 5th Infantry Division, Philippine Army Office of the 5th ID, PA as gospel truths” and found print in a local paper on its May 6, 2018 issue.

“In a desperate attempt to score pogi points and earn for themselves a promotion from their superiors and in the process line their pockets from rebel bounty hunting, 5th ID PA commanding officer Major Gen. Perfecto Rimando, Jr. and PNP Provincial Director Ocden concocted the story of a young 14-year-old little girl, allegedly recruited in the NPA.

“The red-kid-girl story is entirely false. It is full of lies and innuendoes. It has no factual basis. Her printed story in all likelihood is the handiwork of a dirty truncated mind and machination of PNP/AFP intelligence and psychological warfare department.

                “It was unfortunate for the little girl to be used as a pawn and specimen by overzealous and scheming police/military officers trained in the art of psychological warfare to vilify and cast aspersions against the revolutionary forces. “I feel sorry for the little girl. Whoever pushed her to fall prey as cannon fodder in the PNP’s and AFP’s all-out war is denounced.”

Naogsan said the “NPA strictly follows its recruitment guidelines on age requirement that it will only accept 18 years old and above aside from other requirements. It is pure hogwash the claim that a 14-year-old was recruited by the Leonardo Pacsi Command, the NPA-Mountain Province.

“Further, the innuendo that the girl was being molested by her male co-trainees as part of their military training is far from the truth. The NPA is a well disciplined army that adheres strictly to its so called “3-musts” and “8-disciplines” which  mandate “not to take liberties on women.”

“If that is the practice in the PNP/AFP military trainings as exposed in several instances, it is unfair and malicious to equate the same with that of the people’s revolutionary army.”

He said Ka Udyaw, who is also spokesperson of the Artus Talastas Front Operational Command, NPA-East Mt. Province clarified that they know nothing of a certain Ashiana Chadyaag aka Trese that was ever recruited in Paracelis at the age of 14 and stayed there until she allegedly escaped when she was 16 years old. “If indeed, she joined the NPA unit operating in Eastern Mt. Province, then she would have known and stated in her story recount that she was under ATFOC. This only shows that either the girl is a fake rebel or the manipulator doesn’t know what he is talking about. The story as reported with factsheet emanating from the PNP is not only incoherent and stupid but plain fabrication.

“Consider the following: One, how can she be given a special and delicate mission to assassinate PNP Provincial Director Allen S. Ocden if she was a trainee dropout? It defies all logic to believe that such a tall order to assassinate someone be carried out by a dropout singlehandedly and transmitted simply by way of text messaging? That’s simply stupid! And you expect the reading public to believe that? It’s cheap gimmick! If the very purpose of PNP/AFP spokespersons to peddle such make-believe story is to drum up sympathy support and gain political pogi points for future political ambitions of PNP wannabes, then it is cheap propaganda at the expense of the kid girl.

“The make-believe story cited her intention in going to the barracks to voluntarily surrender to the PNP or 77th IB but collapsed at the gate before reaching the guard house! Which is which? To surrender or to assassinate the PD? And she was carrying with her four cell phones, grenade, subversive documents and cash. That’s hogwash! Are you sure the PNP/AFP did not plant these alleged possessions of the alleged red kid fighter? This allegation is suspect as this is the standard modus operandi of PNP/AFP in crime solving - planting evidence? And it is the police that is talking! It doesn’t make sense at all. What a sloppy intel report! Three, the police could not find the firearms where the girl said she deposited them?

“Or might we say, some other police assigned to do the evidence planting forgot to place those firearms where others would find them! Fourth, the PNP PD does not allow anyone, even media people to interview the alleged rebel kid girl he took under his personal custody.

“And yet the PNP is magnanimous in releasing unverified and malicious information purportedly from the girl to the public. To put into the mouth of the alleged rebel kid girl that she participated in an ambush in Isabela is absurd, and to inject in her mind that she was part of the group that ambushed and killed her own soldier uncle is a calculated psychological torture upon her. It just shows how inconsiderate and brutal these so called PNP/AFP psywar experts can twist and manipulate the young mind of their unsuspecting alleged red kid prey.”