Defend the Defenders Network (DDN) CAMANAVA slammed the recent statement of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar that communists Communists favor the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela) area of Metro Manila for recruitment.
DDN CAMANAVA spokesperson Lorna Piano blamed such thinking of the authorities for the continuous deployment of military personnel in CAMANAVA, who they said threatened, harassed and intimidated the organizations of workers and urban poor in the community.
Piano said that the harassment and deployment of military personnel in CAMANAVA communities are clear acts of state terror and pacification of the people’s right to organize.
The members of the network protested at the Monumento Circle on the morning of September 18.
“On the presence of the mass base, we can see the urban poor more in the CAMANAVA area. That’s where they are,” Eleazar said at a press briefing on September 10.
The briefing followed a joint meeting between the Metro Manila Regional Development Council (RDC) and Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) in Pasay, where Eleazar serves as RPOC interim chair.
In the meeting that also created the National Capital Region Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NCRTF-ELCAC), Eleazar said groups go to CAMANAVA area to convince people there to join rallies. These rallies, he said, form part of “front activities” supporting their armed component. The armed component he is saying is the civil war in the countryside waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.
NCRTF-ELCAC was created as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2018 order for a “Whole of Nation” approach as part of the government’s current counterinsurgency program, Oplan Kapanatagan.
Mimi, spokesperson of Sandigan ng Maralitang Nagkakaisa sa Dumpsite Catmon – Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (SMNDC – Kadamay) Malabon pointed out that barangay offices are now the new offices of military in Catmon and military men intervenes in the impending demolition threat in the area.
“NPA daw po kami, samantalang wala naman kaming armas. Ang armas lang po namin ay ang aming sariling paninindigan para ipagtanggol ang kung ano ang meron kami sa paninirahan. Nagtataka lang po kami bakit ganon sa lawak naman po ng [Metro Manila], kami lang ang tinutukan,” said Mimi.
[They said we are members of NPA, but we don’t have guns. The only weapons we have are our own principles to defend our homes. We are wondering why they picked on our area, amid the vastness of the whole of Metro Manila.]
Meanwhile, residents of Tala and Camarin spoke about how the military keeps listing the local leaders and positioning their outpost in public high schools.
According to the Philippine National Police, they have also talked to Rex Gatchalian, City Mayor of Valenzuela to prevent strikes of factories in Valenzuela because these strikes are led by communists.
EJ Honorica of Karapatan Metro Manila expressed his support to the citizens of CAMANAVA and their opposition to Oplan Kalasag, the government’s counterinsurgency program in Metro Manila.
“Oplan Kalasag will meet its failure just like any other counterinsurgency program drawn up to target and destroy the legal and democratic movements in the country,” said Honorica.
Paco Perez of Youth for Justice and Peace called on the people to strengthen their unities and to hold Duterte to account for gross human rights violations and tyrannical measures implement in his time.
“The government, led by Duterte, has become the source of suffering of the people and purveyor of impunity in the country. We must unite and never allow a nationwide martial law declaration to rear its ugly head ever again,” said Perez.
