Some 3,000 people join Rebelyn Pitao's funeral march in Davao City. (AKP Images) DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 15, 2009) – Communist rebels on Wednesday vowed to seek to justice for the brutal murder of a young Filipino woman by government soldiers.
Rebelyn Pitao, 20, was abducted in Davao City in the southern Philippines on March 4 and her naked body was found the next day floating in a shallow creek in the village of San Isidro in Davao del Norte’s Carmen town. Her body bore torture marks and was believed raped before she was stabbed in the chest.
She was a teacher by profession, who led a simple and quiet life with her family in Davao City.
Some 3,000 people joined her funeral march. Many were chanting anti-government slogan and blaming the military for the murder of the woman, whose father Leoncio Pitao, also known as Kumander Parago, is chieftain of the New People’s Army (NPA) Pulang Bagani Command.
Pitao tagged 11 military agents as behind the murder, an accusation strongly denied by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“Today we are remembering Rebelyn on the 40th day of her violent death. We grieve her passing and are united in fighting for justice for a beloved daughter, friend and teacher. With the same purpose, we are also fighting for justice for all victims of state terrorism under Gloria Arroyo,” he said.
He said the past few weeks after the murder of her daughter, the state has engaged in a deceptive campaign in an attempt to pacify the people's outrage on the savage murder of Rebelyn.
The Army’s 10th Infantry Division and the Eastern Mindanao Command have repeatedly denied any involvements of soldiers to the murder. Police also put up Task Force Rebelyn which is investigating the killing of Pitao’s daughter.
But Pitao said the police task force is insignificant.
“Its sole purpose is to do the bidding of the criminal Arroyo regime. It has only proven the public perception that it was hastily set up to instantly absolve the criminal agents of the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command-AFP for masterminding and executing Rebelyn's abduction, torture, rape and murder,” he said.
“The Zarzuela of the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command-AFP during the Commission on Human Rights public hearing and the lies it has propagated related to Rebelyn's death are just the tip of the rottenness of the AFP organization. The duplicity and criminal deeds of Arroyo's running dogs has long been exposed here in Southern Mindanao. It comes as no surprise that the rotten state is not on the people's side, but on the executioners, the killers, the minions of the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command-AFP,” he said.
The NPA has ordered the arrest of all those involved in the killing of the woman while the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) also held Arroyo and the AFP responsible for the murder.
“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 Kumander Parago and his fellow NPA Red fighters in advancing the people’s revolution. 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 murder of Pitao’s daughter 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.
“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,” the CPP said.
Oplan Bantay Laya is the government anti-insurgency campaign in the country.
As for Pitao, he said: “The people have long despised Arroyo, the mastermind of the killings, the chief implementer of the counter-revolutionary Oplan Bantay Laya, and the main representative of the rotten social system.
Arroyo's criminal regime and its running dogs are extremely isolated from the people.”
He said that genuine justice can only be achieved through revolutionary struggle.
”The revolutionary legal and judicial processes of the people's government, the continued strengthening of the people's revolutionary government in the countryside and the tactical offensives of the New People's Army strongly serve the people's interest and the interest of genuine justice,” he said.
Communist rebels broke off peace talks with Manila in 2004 after the United States listed the communist groups as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad on government's prodding. (Mindanao Examiner)
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