Reds ordered to deploy special armed units in towns, cities

MANILA, Philippines — The Communist Party of the Philippines has ordered its armed wing, the New People’s Army, to deploy special armed units in towns and cities to punish “fascist criminal bosses.”

The CPP’s central committee told the NPA in a 20-pave message on its 43rd anniversary that these units can strike at “weak points of enemy units,” including “local tyrants and other bad elements and police units culpable for red-tagging, abducting, torturing and killing people with impunity.”

The Reds’ leadership said these people must be punished by the NPA “to render justice to their victims” over extrajudicial killings and “other fascist crimes.”

Communist rebels confirmed last year that they were forming urban hit squads which would target police officers, soldiers, government agents and even politicians over "blood debts.”

The NPA's Special Partisan Units (SPARUs, also referred to as "Sparrows") were first seen in the 1980s, which also saw the rise of the Alex Boncayao Brigade that later split from the CPP-NPA over ideological differences. — Xave Gregorio