links: http://www.afp.mil.ph/index.php/8-afp-news/614-csafp-statement-on-sagay-incident
CSAFP Statement on Sagay Incident
Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Carlito
Galvez Jr in a Press Conference held Wednesday, 24 October 2018. (Photo
by Cpl Joel Manzano PA/PAOAFP)
Initial Investigation
A thorough
investigation is already on-going to establish the identities and
motives of the perpetrators of the killing of farm workers in Sagay
City, Negros Occidental on Saturday, October 21.
Various government
agencies including the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau
of Investigation (NBI), and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) are
jointly working in the investigation.
What is already known
is that the victims are all recruits of the National Federation of Sugar
Workers (NFSW), a front organization of the CPP-NPA. In fact, they were
recruited, after paying P500 for 1 hectare of land, less than two days
before the incident.
According to the
families, residents, and local authorities in the area, the victims are
not workers in the farm or claimants to the land. DAR has also claimed
that the victims are not entitled beneficiaries. They were brought there
by their recruiters from the NFSW who left just before the shooting
happened.
CPP-NPA Involvement
As we have been
stressing in the past weeks, the CPP has been hatching plans to oust the
Duterte Administration and this incident is part of their plan to rouse
civil unrest and discredit the government.
The CPP's "Oplan
Bungkalan", a nationwide campaign to mobilize farm workers to rally for
the cause of the communists marketed as a struggle for agrarian reform,
is taking advantage of farmers and is using them as bait.
By manipulating,
deceiving, and exploiting the needs of these farmers, the NFSW has put
the lives of these farmers in grave danger by pitting them against the
landowner and other land claimants in the area, with the ends of
jumpstarting an orchestrated nationwide protest by leftist groups.
I am convinced, that
when the conclusive findings of the investigation have been released,
the CPP-NPA and its puppet organization NFSW will have blood on their
hands.
AFP, PNP non-involvement
As to the alleged
involvement of the AFP in the killing of nine farmers, DAR Secretary
John Castriciones has already categorically denied the AFP and the
police’s involvement in the killings and clarified that the incident is a
land conflict.
We call on leftist
groups to substantiate their allegations and give the families some
reprieve and consolation by not propagandizing and politicizing the
incident.
Assistance and Justice
While the
investigation is on-going, we have extended our sincerest condolences to
the victims’ families and we have committed to provide any assistance
to ensure that justice will be served and the perpetrators will be put
behind bars.
The AFP, DAR, DSWD,
and local government unit of Negros are working together to give
immediate and long term aid for the victims’ families and to ensure that
justice will be served. The government and its security forces will
work together to resolve the social cancer and land conflict in the
area.
The AFP is one with
the farming communities of Negros and the whole country in these trying
times. We call on all workers to be more perceptive and vigilant in
order to protect their interests from being exploited by front
organizations of the CPP-NPA and by personalities who may use the
incident as leverage for their political ambitions. ///
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