CPP 51st founding anniversary ‘irrelevant’: DND chief

FILE: Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Monday (June 10, 2019). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) should be ashamed of the atrocities it has committed rather than celebrate its 51st founding anniversary on Thursday, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

“What are you celebrating? The death of many and the billions of destroyed properties?

Or the billions you extorted? You should be ashamed of yourselves pretending to be fighting for the people.

You are just a bunch of killers, arsonists and extortionists,” Lorenzana said.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson, Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo echoed the statement, saying the CPP has been “fooling” the public for more than half a century.

“We should mourn the more than five decades of the CPP’s despotic schemes and evil designs that have destroyed the future of many of our children, ruined the fibers of Filipino family values, prevented economic growth, and divided our nation,” he said.

Arevalo said the CPP, founded by Jose Maria Sison who is in self-exile in the Netherlands, has lost relevance in a world that rejected communism.

“It has become insignificant in a nation governed by strong political will to end insurgency that is bereft of any ideology,” he said.

He added that the CPP and its armed wing, the communist terrorist New People’s Army (NPA), and its political shield, the National Democratic Front (NDF), have been rejected by most Filipinos in the countryside.

“The CPP should heed the writings on the wall. The people have awakened and supported the National Task Force Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) anchored in good governance that the AFP helps foster. It will not be long until the CPP dies a natural death,” he said.