Letter to the Editor — Do not fabricate allegations; produce pieces of evidence

This is in relation to the opinion letter sent by Atty. Poch Cinco, chairperson of Karapatan-Central Visayas to this paper dated June 14, 2006 saying that Lt. Col. Oscar S. Lasangue, of Centcom Civil Relations Chief, is justifying the intensifying political killings in Cebu and the Visayas with the rehash of statements naming progressive party-list groups as NPA fronts.

My reaction to this is, do not fabricate allegations; produce pieces of evidence pinpointing the military to be responsible of the political killings.

Besides, why would they keep on denying that they are CPP legal front organizations, nothing would be lost to them if they will declare themselves so. In fact, they cannot be arrested unless they are armed. Anyway, I have to respect their opinion but action speaks for itself. Several returnees who returned to the folds of the law testified that they are allies of the NPA.

Don't you know that the public is wondering why Karapatan, Bayan Muna and other allied organizations never raised any complaint to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) when the New People's Army massacred helpless civilians? The people have been asking this million-dollar question: Is Bayan Muna, Karapatan, LFS, KMP allies of the NPA under the National Democratic Front?

We noticed here in Cebu that their strength is getting smaller and smaller. Why? It is because the people here - students, farmers, laborers, fishermen, etc. - have already realized that they are being used by these groups as instruments of the greedy ambition of the member of the Central Visayas Regional Party Committee to topple down the government and to destroy our economy.

Naming your organizations as allies of the NPA would not justify that we are responsible for the killings of your members. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is the protector of the people and would not kill innocent civilians. And if that will happen, the government will not tolerate this practice and will punish those responsible behind the killings.

Many years ago, the CPP-NPA-NDF conducted a cleansing program within the organization called the Oplan Cadena de Amor, Operation Missing Link and Oplan Ahos. Thousands of their peers were eliminated and mercilessly killed because of the mere and simple suspicion of being government penetration agents. What did Bayan Muna, Karapatan, LFS and other allied organizations do? Nothing! They did not condemn nor issue a single word against the evils of the NPA.

(Sgd.) Lt. Col Oscar S. Lasangue PAF
Group Commander
3rd Civil Relations Group
Civil Relations Service, AFP
Central Command