Communist death squads still active in some regions — AFP

MANILA, Philippines — Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. expressed support yesterday for the creation of a unit that will counter the operations of the assassination squad of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

He told reporters yesterday that communist rebels now tagged by the government as terrorists definitely have assassination squads called “sparrow units” targeting military and police personnel.

“What we see is that the assassination squads of the CPP-NPA are very active in Bicol, in the area of Eastern Mindanao, also in Western Mindanao and some areas in Samar and also in Negros,” Galvez said.

However, he said the anti-sparrow unit that could be formed by the government to counter such assassination groups should be composed of police and military personnel and not civilians.

“What the President is saying is that because there are more than 136 persons that have been killed and assassinated by the CPP-NPA terrorist group, there is really a need to counter this,” Galvez explained. 

“And to counter this is to make our personnel vigilant and we need to counter this with the organization of counter sparrow force with the intelligence and our special units,” he said.

On whether such unit should be called the Duterte Death Squad as mentioned by President Duterte, Galvez said the name should be more like a “counter sparrow unit” operating based on intelligence, training and “specialized to hunt these people.”

“I believe let’s not involve the civilians, it’s more on the military and the police… intelligence special units,” he said.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde has backtracked on his statement that NPA sparrow units have long ceased to exist, clarifying that the current leadership of the CPP still maintains hit squads. 

Albayalde’s statement comes as he said in a radio interview over the weekend that the NPA sparrow units have been phased out and that the last incident monitored was three years ago. 

He clarified that authorities have recorded that CPP-NPA hit squads are responsible for 136 deaths in the past three years. 

Albayalde claimed that the CPP still has these sparrow units that undertake special operations such as “liquidation, murder or assassination as directed by the regional party committee” in rural areas.

Albayalde said that the government should also set up a specialized unit as there is “strong possibility” that the communist hit squads would stage more assassinations of vulnerable targets.

“This specialized capability of the CPP-NPA should be addressed with an equally specialized countermeasure to reduce the potential for further acts on soft targets. There is also a likelihood that some misled guerrilla fronts and enterprising commanders may offer services for political assassination,” he said.

Still, Albayalde said that they have not received any directive from Malacañang regarding the plan to establish the government’s own death squad. 

He said they still have to coordinate with the AFP on how to create and supervise this special unit. – With Romina Cabrera