Defense chief brushes aside CPP claims on Bohol ops

Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Sunday said that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has become delusional and can no longer distinguish between what is fact and what is fantasy.

Lorenzana made the remark as his reply to the CPP's statement accusing the United States government of having a hand in the military operations against the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Inabanga, Bohol last week,

According to the CPP, the news stories regarding the supposed arrival and presence of members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in Bohol smacks of a US yarn.

"The Filipino people find most of the press statements released by the military, police and local government officials as highly suspect," the CPP said in a statement released on Friday.

It added that contrary to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) report that six ASG members were killed, along with three soldiers and a policeman, the CPP claims that two of the fatalities counted among the Abu Sayyaf fighters killed were actually a civilian couple.

Lorenzana said the CPP has clearly become a victim of its own propagandizing and has rendered itself inutile and an unreliable source of the truth.

"It is not and has never been credible. Definitely, transparency is not a value they have," Lorenzana said.

"Just like the Plaza Miranda bombing which they hatched, executed, denied, and eventually admitted, the CPP is likely to create scenarios and will pass off these lies as the truth in order to push its selfish, anti-people and anti-government motives, such as extortion, kidnapping and intimidation," he added.