Militarizing Leyte can never promote development, peace, says BAYAN EV

Press Release
By BAYAN-EV
September 8, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  “Whose interests do they protect from militarizing Leyte?” asks Flor ‘Ka Pong’ Acbo, Chairperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Eastern Visayas, after the Leyte Provincial Peace and Order Council (RPOC) renewed their vow to crush insurgency to “counter terroristic threats and secure economic interests.”

Bayan Eastern Visayas slammed the PPOC’s twisted logic to promote development and win the peace in Leyte. “The PPOC’s line of reasoning follows the incorrigible propaganda of the present Aquino government to eradicate insurgency by ‘winning the peace and development’ thru intensified civil and military operations,” says Acbo.

Army Colonel John Bunapos, Commanding Officer of the 802nd Brigade based in Ormoc City, Leyte declared during the PPOC conference yesterday that it has boosted the military presence spread across the province. The 78th Infantry Battalion and the 4th Special Forces were recently deployed to assist the counter-insurgency operations initiated by the 19th Infantry Battalion based in Kananga, Leyte.

Acbo said that “boosted military presence has in fact revived Oplan Bantay Laya’s fascist and militarist approach to crush insurgency. It can even surpass the gravity of violations committed under the previous Arroyo government which has already been observed and documented in several municipalities of Leyte including the rape case in Tunga town.”

Bayan particularly condemned the continuing pronouncement made during the PPOC conference against legal organizations when Bunapos mentioned one peasant organization to be front of the New People’s Army. “Bunapos has actually confirmed the suspicion that the military was indeed the anonymous entity behind the death notes sent last August 25 to three officials of the Municipal Farmers Association of Carigara (MUFAC).”

In his statement, Bunapos cited MUFAC in Carigara as one reason why NPAs in Leyte continue to exist after it was declared insurgency-free previously. Bayan, on the other hand, criticized his malicious statement against MUFAC’s program to build communal gardens as immediate source of food for them.

“Bunapos’ folly was showing when he said that these communal gardens are activities of the NPA therefore it follows that MUFAC members are NPAs. The twisted logic of the AFP puts the life and economic interests of these peasants in complete jeopardy.”