28 August 2007
LEGAZPI CITY—THOUSANDS of government workers and villagers took part in simultaneous rallies against communist guerrillas in Sorsogon and Albay.
On Sunday, at least 3,000 residents took to the streets in Castilla town in protest of the continued presence of the New People’s Army in the province of Sorsogon.
Yesterday, the same group carried placards and streamers calling for justice for slain soldiers in the war on communist rebels at another rally at the Peñaranda Park at the Old Albay District.
Senior Supt. Balligi Agnanayon Tira, Bicol police director, said the rally was a rare event joined by government workers and private citizens against communist rebellion.
He said the rally was in line with President Macapagal-Arroyo’s directive for various government agencies to celebrate National Heroes’ Day.
Police trainees in white shirts carried posters supporting the newly passed Human Security Act (HSA) to stop terrorism, others directly condemned the Abu Sayyaf and the NPA.
Tira said criticisms against the HSA should stop because it was a law that went through a difficult process.
He said fears that the HSA would be abused were baseless.
He said that in Albay alone, there were 22 cases of executions and abductions perpetrated by the NPA.
Families of victims of these executions gathered at the Peñaranda Park, burning a communist flag.
A former rebel spoke at the assembly on the “goodness of democracy.”
White balloons were released in honor of government troopers killed in encounters, including the two Bicolano Marine officers who were among those killed in Basilan.
One of them, Cpl. Julius Jove, was buried yesterday in his hometown in Tiwi, Albay.
The Sorsogon rally was the conclusion of three days of seminar held by local government units, national government agencies and the Philippine Army in Barangay Mayon, Castilla.
Lt. Col. Claudio Yucot, commanding officer of the Army’s 9th Infantry Battalion, said among those who attended the rally were members of the barangay defense system, anticommunist advocates and former sympathizers of the CPP-NPA.
The rallies were described as harassment by the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya).
Pamalakaya said its national chair, Fernando Hicap, was allegedly being sought by the Army to join the activity.
In a statement sent to Inquirer, Hicap accused Lt. Alex Parohinog, head of the Army’s Special Operations Team, of harassing his family after the Army officer allegedly required the village chief to produce him, his son, Fryan, leader of the Sangguniang Kabataan in Barangay Tomalaytay, Castilla, where the Hicaps reside, and three other local residents suspected of having links with the rebel group.
The Pamalakaya leader said he would file charges of harassment against Parohinog.
But Yucot denied Hicap’s allegation, saying the Army merely invited him but did not force him to attend the rallies.
He said the seminar was not meant to harass anybody but inform the public about the alleged evils of the NPA. Ephraim Aguilar and Bobby Q. Laba-lan, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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