Philippines: Red fighters hit Consunji-hired AFP Marines in Sultan Kudarat
New People’s Army Valentin Palamine Regional Operations Command
Far South Mindanao
PRESS STATEMENT
March 21, 2017
The 2nd Marine Company of the Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT-8) suffered heavy casualties in the aftermath of a tactical offensive launched March 21, by Red fighters of Mt. Daguma Sub-Regional Command at Km. 30, Sityo Tinagdanan, Brgy. Hinalaan, Kalamansig in Sultan Kudarat. Seven marine troops were killed while several others were severely wounded.
The offensive was carried out as a punitive action against the AFP’s elite Marine force that for several years now functioned as paid guard dogs protecting the destructive enterprises of landgrabber bourgeois- comprador David Consunji, especially his open-pit mining David M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI). The troops were conducting combat operation in Kalamansig against the NPA unit in the area.
Red fighters hit Consunji-hired AFP Marines in Sultan Kudarat
The Marine Brigade in Far South is desperately lying through its teeth in claiming that 6 Red fighters were killed by their artillery bombardment after the NPA’s successful tactical offensive. Not one of the NPA units in Sultan Kudarat was hit by their bombardment. The AFP’s artillery strike, however, managed to damage farms and forest covers in the hinterlands of Brgy. Hinalaan and adjacent barrios.
Apart from indiscriminate bombardment, reinforcement ground troops of the AFP have begun to sow further terror in Kalamansig town. Houses were destroyed while the communities around Brgy. Hinalaan were hamletted. Several families have already evacuated to other barangays and in Kalamansig town. Mateo Gantangan, a farmer, was arrested and detained at the Marine headquarters in Kalamasig.
The Lumad tribes, especially the Dulangan Manobo, and peasants in Kalamansig and neighboring towns have lived in mortal fear of Consunji and the armed minions comprised of the SCAA-38th IB, the 2nd Marine Company and the 57th IB. Since the 1980s, Consunji brazenly purloined 102,954 hectares of land from the Lumad and peasants of Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Maguindanao for his various businesses, including a logging concession that deforested large mountain areas in these provinces. With the aid of AFP troops in his employ, Consunji perpetrated numerous human rights violations to quell the resistance of the masses.
The upcoming continuation of the peace negotiations between the NDFP and the GRP must effect the dismantling of Consunji’s vast destructive enterprise and ensure that the Lumad and peasants are given back the right to the productive lands they lost in the greedy hands of this landgrabber. Meanwhile, the NPA in Far South Mindanao will continue to carry out punitive actions against his businesses and the AFP troops that perpetuate injustice against the masses in the region.
KA DENCIO MADRIGAL
Spokesperson, Valentin Palamine Command
New People’s Army Regional Operations Command
