CPDF hits slay of Chinese- American rights worker

SOMEWHERE IN THE CORDILLERA – The Cordillera People’s Democratic Front condemned the recent shooting of Chinese-American human rights worker Brandon Lee in Kiangan, Ifugao who is still in critical condition in a hospital in the province.

The Cordillera Regional Police Office under director Brig. Gen. Ephraim Israel Dickson has also condemned the slay try and launched an investigation on the matter.

 “Immediately after its creation, the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) in the Cordillera has reared its evil head and plans to neutralize activists through constant harassment, filing of trumped up charges, illegal arrests and extra-judicial killings, all  to silence the people’s resistance in the region,” said CPDF spokesperson Simon “Ka Filiw” Naogsan.

“After experiencing incessant vilification and red-tagging, human rights volunteer of the Ifugao Peasant Movement   Brandon Lee, was targeted for liquidation by death squad at 5 p.m. of August 7. Fortunately, he survived the attack,” Naogsan said in a statement.

Naogsan said “before the assassination attempt, Lee had been receiving death threats and has been accused by the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Philippine National Police as “NPA supporter” in malicious and dirty propaganda that was disseminated in different parts of the province.”

Though a Chinese-American, Lee has long been accepted by the Tuwali of Ifugao as he is married to a Tuwali woman and has a permanent residency status in the Philippines.

According to the CPDF, “implementation of the whole-of-nation approach during Oplan Bayanihan, Ifugao had become a killing ground for mass leaders who stand up for people’s rights and livelihood.”

Naogsan cited the cases of William Bugatti in 2014 and Ricardo Mayumi in 2018.

“There can be no other culprit in this attempt on Lee’s life except for the mercenary armed forces of the US-Duterte regime. Acting on orders from their commander-in-chief, the AFP-PNP and their paramilitary forces have launched a nationwide killing spree as an essential part of Oplan Kapanatagan. Along with the peddling of lies and deceptions, these fascist attacks are meant to shock the people into submission and to silence all opposition to the status quo.”