In an act of grand deception, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officials and their mouthpieces exerted tremendous efforts to sell the narrative that the military spies punished by the New People’s Army (NPA) recently in Northern and Central Negros were “plain civilians” due to their lack of formal membership to uniformed services or direct organizational affiliation with the AFP. As such, they should not be targeted and subjected to attack.
This is a gross distortion of the truth. Regular AFP intelligence officers rely heavily on these assets and local spies for intelligence and other information requisite in the conduct of combat operations. They work closely with intelligence officers and being supervised by them. Thus, assets are de facto part of reactionary state’s fascist war machinery.
As per customary international law, a spy is an “agent of one belligerent that gathers information of the opponent clandestinely, under false pretense or in disguise, with the intention to communicate it to the first belligerent.”
This is exactly what AFP assets has been doing—secretly conducting espionage activities for the AFP and reporting to the former the intelligence gathered.
International humanitarian law places strong emphasis on the transparency of the affiliations and status of combatants in war. As irregular agents conducting covert operations, spies are considered unlawful combatants. Thus, constituting a legitimate target for NPA’s actions.
NDF-Negros considered the punishment of these military spies as act of justice for the long suffering masses.
The National Democratic Front (NDF)-Negros will do its utmost to actively expose the machinations of the AFP to justify its brutal counter-revolutionary war and contribute to people’s war’s inevitable advance.
