NDF spokesman: Reds in Rizal ordered to kill ex-204th IB head

A local spokesman of the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) has disclosed that the Rizal command of the New People’s Army (NPA) has been ordered to liquidate Col. Jovito Palparan for the April 21 killings of two human rights activists in Oriental Mindoro.

In a statement, Arman Guerrero, who introduced himself as the NDF spokesman in Rizal, said the NPA’s Narciso Antazo Aramil Command in the province has been ordered "to impose on Palparan the highest penalty of death."

The NDF and the NPA are the political and armed groups, respectively, of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Palparan has been relieved as commander of the Army’s 204th Infantry Brigade and transferred to Rizal.

Militant groups and the underground communist movement have linked Palparan and his men to the abduction-slayings of human rights activist Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eduardo Gumanoy.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Senate committee on human rights are separately investigating the incident.

At the time of their deaths, Marcellana and Gumanoy, along with 20 other activists, were on a fact-finding mission on the alleged abuses of the 204th IB in the course of its counter-insurgency operations against the NPA in Oriental Mindoro.

Anti-communist vigilantes were earlier said to have killed Marcellana and Gumanoy, but a DOJ task force has ruled this out.

Guerrero said Palparan "deserves to be punished with death, including others like him in the military who wantonly violate the people’s human rights."

He said the killings of Marcellana and Gumanoy were likely "designed to sow terror among the people and even among human rights activists in Mindoro and elsewhere in Southern Tagalog."

Although the communist movement earlier said it "conditionally" trusts the DOJ and Senate investigations, Guerrero said there is a strong possibility that the separate probes may only lead to "absolving Palparan of his crimes."

He said the order for the NPA in Rizal to kill Palparan would remain until "revolutionary justice" catches up with the military official.