Camp Navarro, Calarian, Zamboanga City- October 28, 2020

Combined elements of the AFP and PNP conducted a law enforcement operation along the shoreline of Barangay Arena Blanco in Zamboanga City which resulted in the apprehension of a criminal group member in the afternoon of October 27, 2020.

“The arrested personality was identified as Anerson Manambahi Tungayao, a.k.a. Ganison, a criminal group member who is also affiliated with the Sulu-based local terrorist group,” said Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, Jr., WestMinCom Commander. 

Lt. Gen. Vinluan, Jr. stated that the operating troops recovered from a.k.a. Ganison’s possession one M16 rifle and one short magazine loaded with ammunition.

“A.k.a. Ganison is a resident of Barangay Tapanayan, Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte, and was positively identified by Rex Triplitt as one of his abductors,” Lt. Gen. Vinluan, Jr. added. 

The arrested personality was brought to the headquarters of the Anti-Kidnapping Group-9 in Camp Batalla, Barangay Cawa-Cawa, the same city for filing of appropriate charges.

“His link to the local terrorist group was attested by his participation in the kidnapping of KV Rex Triplitt in Sirawai on September 16, 2020, along with the Sulu-based LTG led by Injam Yadah,” Lt. Gen. Vinluan, Jr. uttered.

“Our troops, in close collaboration with and support from our counterparts, sustain the law enforcement efforts targeting the lawless elements here in Mindanao,” Lt. Gen. Vinluan, Jr. concluded.

#AFPyoucanTRUST #TeamAFP #TeamWestMinCom #WholeofNationApproach

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AFP CHIEF A BIGOT AND ISLAMOPHOBE: CPP

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) stands in solidarity with the Moro people in denouncing Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Gilbert Gapay’s allegation that madaris are being used “to recruit suicide bombers.” 

“Gapay displays fascist bigotry and anti-Muslim chauvinism for baselessly associating the Islamic madrasah or school (“madaris” is the plural form) with ‘radicalization’ and ‘terrorism.’ This stunning accusation reveals the AFP’s deep-seated religious prejudice against Muslims and the Moro people,” CPP argued. 

The AFP’s plan to investigate Moro students is utterly discriminatory and incites religious intolerance, hatred and Islamophobia, the party explained. It comes at a time when a newly-minted Duterte fanatic at the House of Representatives who masquerades as a youth representative seeks to investigate colleges and universities alleged to be the centers for the recruitment of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas, as what the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has been perorating about for years. 

“This program is clearly part of the regime’s continuing campaign of suppression against the Moro people’s struggle for genuine self-determination in order to rob them of their ancestral lands and rich natural resources, similar to what has been done in Marawi,” CPP pointed out. 

By falsely accusing the madaris of being hubs for “suicide bombers,” Gapay is only repeating the “fascist regime’s baseless accusation against Lumad schools being a ‘training ground for New People’s Army (NPA) fighters’ that became the excuse to attack communities of indigenous people (IP) sand pave the way for aggression into Lumad ancestral land.

” The attack on madrasas is just one facet of the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) that is now being invoked to suppress religious freedom on the basis of allegations that flutter in the minds of corrupt Duterte military officials. Without any proof, the AFP conjured a specter of “suicide bombers” and peddled this in its press releases in order to justify its plan to escalate aggression against Moros and pocket millions of pesos in intelligence funds, CPP concluded. By MARVYN N. BENANING

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AFP CHIEF MUST BE HIGH WHEN HE CLAIMED ‘MANY NPA GUERRILLAS ARE SURRENDERING’

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has urged armed forces chief Gen. Gilbert Gapay to undertake a drug test, saying he was obviously on some hallucinogen drug when he claimed that “many NPA rebels surrendering.

” Gapay insisted the NPA is on the decline in an effort to boost his boast that the military is taking the fight to the guerrillas, whose numbers have increased to more than 11,000. 

“There is absolutely no basis in reality for the general’s claims,” CPP maintained, arguing “the AFP’s propaganda about the ‘weakened’ state of the NPA is built on top of a mountain of lies, human rights abuses and corruption which AFP officers have built over the past four years.

Almost every day, they spin a web of press releases and social media postings promoting false information including the thousands whom the AFP has paraded as ‘NPA surrenderees.'” They recycle old weapons from their armories and claim these are surrendered firearms, the party argued. Military-photoshopped and -staged images of civilians are not uncommon. 

“In the course of this psywar campaign, the rights of tens of thousands of people in rural villages are systematically violated. Soldiers swoop down on communities, impose hamlet policies where they take away people’s political and economic rights, place severe restrictions on people’s movements and subject them to endless abuse and oppression.

Having no access to legal representation, the masses are subjected by the military to unlawful arrests, detention, torture, conscription and other abuses. Killings of peasant leaders and activists continue with impunity,” CPP revealed. 

AFP boasts of so-called “economic livelihood programs” merely obscure the fundamental land problem of the masses as they showcase housing projects that serve as a milking cow for military officers who skim millions of pesos from the “community integration program” and leave the masses hanging dry. Counterinsurgency funds are among the biggest sources of corruption especially among the higher echelons of the AFP.

 “The masses are turning to the NPA in order that they could defend themselves, their families and their land, and to enable them to wrest back the freedoms taken away by the state terrorists. To a growing number of people, taking up arms and waging resistance has become the only option in the face of Duterte’s dirty war,” CPP maintained. 

Thus, the NPA continues to grow in strength in terms of new recruits as well as deeper support among the masses. The NPA performs its role as the genuine people’s army, by raising the people’s political consciousness and in building their organizations, assisting them in their day to day tasks in production, and helping them in their struggle to advance their democratic interests.

True to being the people’s army, the NPA extends medical and public health service to the masses.”In the face of widespread state terrorism by the Duterte regime, the NPA is ever determined to wage revolutionary armed struggle. Red fighters are ever willing to make the necessary sacrifice to serve the people.

The NPA will continue to carry out tactical offensives against the Duterte regime’s fascist troops. Guerrilla warfare will continue to spread across the country and defeat the fascists one by one and make them pay for their cruelties against the masses. One after another, AFP generals will retire frustrated from their declared aims of defeating the NPA. They all end up in ignominy,” CPP concluded. By MARVYN N. BENANING

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