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[av_heading heading=’Retired Army general questions CPP-NPA terrorist tag ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RANIE AZUE
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BACOLOD City – If President Rodrigo Duterte wants to detach the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) from the masses, tagging its members as terrorists is not the right way to do it.
This was according to retired Philippine Army brigadier general Raymundo Jarque, who is the “brain” behind the Oplan Thunderbolt in Negros Island in the 1980s.
Jarque said the current administration is using the terrorist tag as a strategy to win against rebel forces.
According to Jarque, the tag can be interpreted that the “elites rule the country or the government.”
Jarque added that tagging the CPP-NPA as a terror group is the “easiest way for the government” to warn the public of its members.
The current administration thinks that it is making the public think of CPP-NPA members as terrorists but that is not what’s really happening, said Jarque.
For the government to win over the rebel forces, Jarque suggested that it must study the “roots of insurgency,” which he referred to as social injustices.
The United States (US) of America once tagged the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group after Central Intelligence Agency personnel and military adviser to the Philippines Colonel James Row was killed by rebels.
For the CPP-NPA, Row’s killing was not an act of terrorism but a punitive action because of the US military’s meddling with the internal affairs of the Philippines, Jarque said.
He added that the CPP-NPA does not impose indiscriminate punitive actions. The rebels only target corrupt public officials and state agents./PN
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