Why are the NPAs stepping up their armed struggle in Negros?

It caught to my attention what I have seen, heard, and read on the news especially to this paper the latest incident in Sagay City, Negros Occidental last May 22 particularly in Sitio Buntod Aliwanay, Barangay General Luna.

I was once a resident in barangay General Luna before I moved in to Cebu City for work as call center agent.  I am writing this opinion letter because I am concerned of the peace and order. This NPA attack happened for the first time in the barangay since I reside there.

On the report, the military officials said the New People's Army rebels attacked the farmers' bunkhouse killing two of the farmers and wounding two others. The victims were members of Aliwanay Farm Workers Association who have acquired ownership over the land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Police investigation showed that agrarian reform beneficiaries in the barangay have formed the Aliwanay Farmers Association to protect themselves, as the property awarded to them by the Department of Agrarian Reform is slowly being encroached on by members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers, who are also claiming to be agrarian reform beneficiaries.

On the other hand, NPA rebels owned up as behind the incident and also claimed that those killed were not farmers but members of the CAFGU, a paramilitary group of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. And that the area being attacked was not a bunkhouse but a military detachment.   

It may have different versions of the incident from both sides but one certain root cause of the attack was the land dispute because the area being attacked was covered under the CARP. The problem should be resolved in a more peaceful manner because we have the local government in the area to address it and not in a violent means as what the NPAs have done.

What the NPA did was an inhumane act. NPA claimed that they killed CAFGU in the detachment but it so happened that those killed were also farmers and residents in the barangay. Their way of resolving the issues is still at the barrel of their guns and instant justice, the old ways.

At this point in time, it raises my doubts if the communists are committed and sincere enough to help President Rodrigo Duterte to resolve long time issues such as land reform, environmental protection, poverty and unemployment wherein they will be given the opportunityto be appointed as Cabinet Secretaries of critical positions such as DAR, DSWD, DENR, and DOLE.

With what had happened, on my own opinion the communist leaders did not show any sincerity since the NPA, their armed component, is still back on their own way of resolving problems in the community through violence. We must remember that the president-elect is offering them the chance to be part of the government and as expected they should abandon their armed struggle. Why is it that the NPA rebels have step up their armed struggle by kidnapping, killing farmers, soldiers and policeman in the province of Negros?

(Sgd) Maryknoll  K. Lavicena

Call center agent

Cebu City