Tale of 4,000 NPA surrenders a hoax, CPP says

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has dismissed as "complete hoax" and "beyond credible propaganda" the claim of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that there more than 4,000 New People's Army (NPA) members and sympathizers have surrendered to the government.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the CPP said that the AFP "must end" its practice of "red-tagging and making people pose as NPA members in violation of their rights."

"Such practice endangers the lives of people by deliberately blurring the lines between armed combatants and civilians," CPP said.

""Deceiving and forcing people to pose as NPA surrenderees. To come up with big numbers, the AFP employs deception, threats and violence to force people pose as surrenderees. Under pain of being accused of NPA supporters, and for fear of being subjected to Marawi-like bombardment, civilians are compelled to 'cooperate' with the 'surrender' shows of the AFP," it added.

The CPP issued the statement after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a television interview that there are around 4,000 NPA regulars and supporters who have surrendered to the government.

From January 1 to March 15, the AFP has claimed recording 4,356 NPA regular members and supporters who have surrendered.

Of this number, 626 were either NPA regulars or Sangay sa Partiko Lokal members and 3,730 were Militia ng Bayan, Underground Mass Organization members and mass supporters.

While the CPP admitted that there are "one or several who have surrendered," it said that "99 percent of the 4,000 NPA surrenderees are actually civilian residents of barrios which the AFP insists are part of the NPA's mass base."

"Over the past few months, Duterte himself and the entire military and defense establishment have spent hundreds of millions of pesos to stage Malacañang dinners with the president, tours around Luneta and other cheap gimmickry," the CPP said.

"The bigger portion of the monies, of course, line-up the pockets of AFP field officials. According to our sources, funds from Duterte’s discretionary and intelligence funds are automatically downloaded to the ATM accounts of brigade and battalion commanders depending on the number of 'NPA surrenderees' they report. Thus, military field units are in a frenzy of conducting psywar operations to hold 'surrender activities'," it further said.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier hosted former NPA members in Malacañang where he promised to provide financial assistance, education, training, and integration to the Armed Forces. He had also pledged to bring female rebel returnees to Hong Kong for them to see the achievements of capitalist societies.

GMA News Online has sought comment from Lorenzana but he has yet to reply as of posting. —NB, GMA News