The arrest and detention of Pansoy as “prisoner of war” and the confiscation of firearms, Ibarra noted, is a warning not just against Uy and his party mates, but to all candidates who are armed for they will be targets of the NPA “to protect the people” and to defend their territories.
By MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN
Davao Today
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The New People’s Army (NPA) has issued a warning to all “armed” candidates who will enter “revolutionary territories” as it claimed responsibility of arresting Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy’s police escort.
In a statement e-mailed to davaotoday.com Monday evening, Ka Daniel Ibarra, spokesperson for the NPA’s ComVal-Davao Gulf Sub Regional Command, said the NPA’s Guerilla Front 2 arrested Senior Police Officer 2 Allan Mariquit Pansoy in a checkpoint at Sitio Malamudaw, Maco town last Sunday.
Pansoy, who was allegedly in plainclothes, was with Uy and his convoy of Board Members who were confiscated with two Baby Armalite rifles, four short firearms and one handheld radio.
The NPA spokesman said the incident happened because Uy “failed to coordinate and cooperate” with them and the organs of the People’s Democratic Government with regards to their “no-firearms policy.”
However, Ibarra took cognizance for Uy and his group’s non-defiance to the NPA checkpoint, saying the latter “cooperated quietly for an hour” while the communist guerillas searched their belongings.
“Civilian functionaries and accompanying enemy personnel are left unharmed when they give no armed resistance in the case of NPA checkpoints and arrest operations,” Ibarra assured.
The NPA said they are able to distinguish who are those aggressive and counterrevolutionary, who are less rabid and who are those who act out of fear of reprisal from the military from among the politicians.
It also warned politicians for bringing the “enemies of the people,” referring to the military, police and paramilitary groups, during election time, saying it would only “jeopardize the safety and security of the peasant masses” and that “their mere presence serves to intimidate the poor voters and bully the latter to support non-performing politicians.”
The arrest and detention of Pansoy as “prisoner of war” and the confiscation of firearms, Ibarra noted, is a warning not just against Uy and his party mates, but to all candidates who are armed for they will be targets of the NPA “to protect the people” and to defend their territories.
“It is deceptive to say that AFP and/or the PNP serve as innocent escorts when they are the fascist private armies of politicians,” Ibarra said.
The AFP and the PNP, according to Ibarra, intimidate, conduct psychological warfare, and do surveillance against the masses “as part of their bootlicking jobs for politicians.” (Marilou Aguirre-Tuburan/davaotoday.com
