Malacañang on Sunday condemned the treacherous attack by the New People’s Army (NPA) against government soldiers in Rizal Province, where a soldier and a rebel were killed in the clash, five days after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) agreed to a nationwide ceasfire from March 26 until April 15 as the Philippines grapples with the rising number of coronavirus cases.
In a statement, Palace spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the Saturday clash between the rebels and the military in Barangay Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal, only shows the “insincerity” of the NPA on the declaration of a ceasefire amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) health crisis.
“We strongly condemn in the strongest terms the NPA attack on our soldiers while the latter were doing community work in Barangay Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal in the face of a declaration of ceasefire on both sides and in the midst of an emergency health crisis,” Panelo said.
The Palace official said the attack is a blatant disregard by members of the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP, to protect the welfare of the Filipino people.
“This armed attack by the NPA against our soldiers exposes the insincerity of the former in declaring a ceasefire as well as their blatant disregard of the welfare of the Filipino people they claim to fight for as their armed assault against the soldiers who were doing community work in connection with the government’s battle against COVID-19 have placed the civilians in imminent danger and disrupted the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in that area,” Panelo said.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which will last until April 15.
CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison heeded the call for a ceasfire, saying, the ceasefire is a “gesture towards national unity and based on humanitarian principles in the context of the serious public emergency.”
Sison agreed to the recommendation of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and in accordance with the United Nations request for warring parties all over the world to stop fighting temporarily.
However, the Palace warned that the military will repel any attack by the rebels to crush insurgency in the country.
“Let this be a warning to the enemies of the state that the constituted authorities are equipped and ready to repel any and all transgressions of law and crush any armed attack against our soldiers and civilians with ferocity and might,” Panelo said.
President Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine until midnight of April 13, 20 to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said that the NPA does not have any plan of honoring the agreed ceasefire.
AFP chief of staff General Felimon Santos Jr. issued the statement following the encounter in Rizal.
“The New People’s Army has made it clear that they will not honor their ceasefire declaration at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 28,” Santos said in a statement.
“This attack on our people throws away their so-called “humanitarian principles” and expose the exploitative nature of their ceasefire declaration,” he added.
“They were planning to celebrate their anniversary on March 29 with a bang,” Santos said.