AFP accused of violating holiday truce

MANILA, Philippines - The National Democratic Front (NDF) has accused the military of violating its own ceasefire by deploying additional troops and assets in Southern Mindanao.

Rubi del Mundo, spokesperson of the NDF Southern Mindanao chapter, said that additional Army troops have been deployed in Davao and North Cotabato even before the government truce took effect last Dec. 21.

“GPH (Government of the Philippines) security forces have not complied with its own ceasefire declaration,” Del Mundo said in a statement issued Tuesday night.

“The GPH’s ceasefire is falsely packaged as more considerate due to its longer timeframe while unfairly scoffing at NPA’s declaration as inadequate and perfunctory. Reports from the field, however, reveal the GPH’s truce as illusory, treacherous and dangerous,” she added.

The government has declared a holiday ceasefire with communist rebels that took effect last Dec. 20 and will last until Jan. 15. The CPP earlier approved a shorter truce to be implemented from Dec. 24 to 26 and from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2.

The NDF Southern Mindanao cited several incidents of troop movements in its statement but did not mention any attack by government forces.

Del Mundo said the Army’s 67th battalion has stationed its armored personnel carrier and two canyons in Compostela town on Dec. 19. She said soldiers have since remained in “active mode” in the area as well as in Trento in Agusan del Sur and Cateel and Boston in Davao Oriental.

NDF Southern Mindanao also decried the setting up of military checkpoints in barangays Masara and Elizalde in Maco and barangays Andili and Limbo in Mawab, all in Compostela Valley.

Del Mundo said members of the 84th battalion also arrived Monday night in Marahan, Marilog district in Davao City and moved to Barangay Ladayon in Arakan, North Cotabato.

“These instances of forward deployment of the 10th Infantry Division units are duplicitous and offensive maneuvers in guerrilla territories,” the local NDF spokesperson said.

“Reports of additional enemy deployment and enemy offensive actions from the field cannot be referred to as merely routine movements or cannot be dismissed as part of the GPH’s blanket declaration of maintaining their defensive readiness in the protection of our people,” she added.

Del Mundo described the government truce as “an exercise in futility, empty to the core” and “unreliable.”

She said the truce will only be used to “abuse the masses, pursue counter-revolutionary operations and stifle the movement of the populace.”