The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today said that one year after the Duterte regime’s Memorandum Order 32 placed Samar under virtual martial law, the New People’s Army (NPA) is going from victory to victory, leaving the Armed Forces of the Philippines reeling from continuing battlefield losses and resorting to dirty propaganda against the NPA.

“The victorious NPA guerrilla offensive last Nov. 12 in Borongan City, Eastern Samar is only the latest victory of the Red fighters against Duterte’s fascist troops,” said NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago “Ka Sanny” Salas. “The 8th Infantry Division’s whining that the NPA violates the laws of war is pure hogwash. The NPA uses command-detonated explosives, not anti-personnel landmines that are automatically set off and which are prohibited by international law because of the danger to innocent civilians.

“The 8th ID’s whining speaks of a double standard. The NPA legitimately uses command-detonated explosives with great success in Samar as poor man’s weapons within the bounds of the laws of war. Meanwhile, the 8th ID shamelessly brags about its rich man’s weapons, such as 500-pound bombs recently dropped by supersonic fighters in an alleged ‘surgical strike’ in Brgy. Capoto-an, Las Navas, Northern Samar. This turned out to be surgical stupidity in failing to hit the NPA while disregarding and thus almost obliterating civilians living in the area.”

Fr. Salas said the AFP is resorting to desperate measures to demean the NPA’s political and military superiority. “The NPA enjoys the support of the people and is adept as well in the guerrilla tactics of shifting from the enemy’s focus, concentrating elsewhere to attack enemy weak points, and dispersing for mass work, thus foiling the AFP offensives that can only temporarily focus at the most on a small percentage of the entire region. There is no way the 8th ID can defeat the NPA in Eastern Visayas, unless the NPA will become as stupid as the AFP and will pursue the purely military solution that is the enemy’s game. The 8th ID’s generals and colonels know this and resort to heaping dirt on the NPA such as making fake issues about landmines and child warriors, while grabbing money while they still can from fake surrenders and fake community support projects. The NPA will surely become ever stronger and deal heavier blows on the AFP, while the people are increasingly roused against the cruel and corrupt Duterte regime and its unseemly menage a trois puppetry with the US and Chinese imperialists.”

National Democratic Front of the Philippines

Eastern Visayas

Media Release

November 25, 2019