DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 11, 2009) – Communist rebels vowed Wednesday to arrest four soldiers linked to the killing of a commander’s daughter in the southern Philippines.
The underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it instructed the New People’s Army (NPA) to arrest the four military men for the murder of Rebelyn Pitao, who was abducted in Davao City on March 4. She was tortured and raped and stabbed several times in the chest.
The woman is the daughter of Leoncio Pitao also known as Kumander Parago, chieftain of the NPA’s Pulang Bagani Command.
The CPP identified the four soldiers as Sergeants Adan Sulao and Ben Tipait of the Armed Forces’ Military Intelligence Group XI and Corporal Alvin Bitang of the Military Intelligence Battalion (MIB) of the Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division, and a certain Pedregoza, another intelligence agent.
“These fascist agents are believed to have carried out this dastardly crime in accordance with instructions from higher ups in their desperate campaign to shatter the determination of Commander Parago and his fellow NPA Red fighters in advancing the people’s revolution,” the CPP said in a statement.
Pitao’s daughter was found dead March 5, floating in a shallow creek in the village of San Isidro in Davao del Norte’s Carmen town.
“These suspects should be sought and arrested so they could undergo investigation by duly authorized revolutionary authorities and face criminal charges,” the CPP said.
The CPP also held the highest officials of the Arroyo government and the AFP responsible for the murder of Rebelyn.
“Ultimately, it is Gloria Arroyo and her top fascist henchmen who are to blame for the crimes against Rebelyn Pitao. Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya 2 has long regarded civilians as targets of military operations including killings, abductions, torture and other forms of fascism. This has now been most hideously extended to apply as well to loved ones and relatives of armed revolutionaries the fascists cannot get hold of.”
Oplan Bantay Laya is the government anti-insurgency campaign in the country.
The CPP also dismissed as “empty rhetoric” the pronouncements of President Arroyo and her defense officials that it is investigating the murder of Rebelyn.
“How can the Arroyo and her factotums be sincere in seeking justice for Rebelyn’s murder when they have, in fact, made this inevitable in the strategy, tactics and course of their counter-revolutionary war? By commending, promoting and rewarding her notorious fascist generals, Arroyo has in fact directly encouraged the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in such brutal and dastardly crimes,” it said.
”Rebelyn’s murder highlights the Arroyo regime’s innumerable crimes against unarmed civilians who are invariably regarded by the military and its counter-insurgency strategists as combatants in the raging civil war,” the CPP said.
The Army’s 10th Infantry Division said Wednesday that it has already restricted to Bitang and Pedrogoza so they can answer any investigations into the killing of Pitao’s daughter.
The two soldiers, who were former NPA rebels, denied accusations against them, said Capt. Rosa Manuel, a regional army spokeswoman. (Mindanao Examiner)
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