Marco Valbuena | Chief Information Officer | Communist Party of the Philippines February 24, 2021
Duterte’s charge yesterday that the New People’s Army (NPA) was kidnapping children is a big lie. Walang kabata-batayan (no basis whatsoever).
Duterte’s rant is a desperate attempt to deflect charges of children’s rights abuses against police officer who raided the Bakwit school University of San Carlos in Cebu City more than a week ago. Police misrepresented the raid as a “rescue operation” supposedly to bring back the children to their parents.
Several teachers and elders are ludicrously being accused of kidnapping and giving military training to recruit children to the NPA.
There is no truth to police and military claims that the Bakwit School is an NPA school. Kapag tinuturuan ba ang mga bata na magmahal sa katutubong kultura at magtanggol sa kanilang lupang ninuno, NPA na?
As far as we know, these children were being sheltered in the campus after they sought escape from AFP abuses in their community. In fact, it is the gross abuses committed by the military in their communities that forced the children to leave their homes and seek safety.
Duterte’s baseless charges and falsehoods is indicative of the relentless campaign of red-tagging by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) against Duterte’s critics and opposition forces.
