BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A spokesman of the New People’s Army Apolinario Gatmaitan Command yesterday vehemently denied military and police claims that four arrested persons on Friday in Brgy. Magballo, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, are ranking officials of the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army.
They are not even members of the NPA, rebel spokesman Ka Juanito Magbanua claimed, adding that those arrested are but victims of the government intensifying of state terrorism, targeting innocent civilians and labeling them as NPA top brass for bounty and to demoralize the revolutionary movement..
Maj. Cenon Pancito III, Public Affairs Office chief of the 3rd Infantry Division, said yesterday that there is nothing new in the denial of Magbanua, stressing that they are masters in making excuses each time their group commits blunders and are now crippled by the series of combined operations against them.
Instead of wasting efforts in distorting facts, Pancito advised them and their allies to do better in the legal battle.
The arrest of the four alleged NPA leaders also yielded explosives, and guns, among other items.
Magbanua, meanwhile, said in a statement that the NPA-Negros continue operating in five guerilla fronts in the entire Negros Island.
He claimed that the focused military operations of the AFP against the NPA have only angered the people even more as they only brought terror, hunger, and now even the virus to communities.
Magbanua also said that as state attacks worsen, the NPA will surely grow in numbers as a result, and thanked President Rodrigo Duterte, the AFP and PNP for being their number one recruiters.*
